Texas A&M takes advantage of Texas miscues to advance to regional final (2024)

The 12th Man certainly felt the weight of Saturday's Bryan-College Station Regional matchup between Texas A&M and rival Texas at Blue Bell Park. The Aggie bats— not so much.

However, Texas miscues, from walks to errors, helped A&M earn a spot in the region final with a 4-2, 11-inning victory that finished exactly at midnight.

Texas reliever Chase Lummus issued the second walk of the top of the 11th to Jackson Appel, which loaded the bases for Ted Burton. After hard-hit balls sprayed all over the field for Burton, with none falling in, the senior dribbled the slowest of rollers down the third-base line, just staying fair. Longhorn third baseman Peyton Powell couldn't handle the swinging bunt, which hit the base, allowing a run to score. A wild pitch in the next at-bat added all the insurance the Aggies needed.

"It's crazy how dumb baseball is," A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said with a smirk. "The guy destroys two balls to center field and then the one that gives us the lead is a swinging bunt that hits the base."

For what typically plays as a small ballpark for hitters, the humid air surrounding Blue Bell Park on Saturday kept a number of hard-hit balls inside the confines from both teams, including the pair from Burton.

"It played like a Big League park today, that's for sure," Burton said. "But it went both ways."

Before the Aggie crowd had finished singing about fires raging in Austin, the Longhorns' Jared Thomas sent the the first pitch from A&M's Ryan Prager over the fence in left center, on an opposite-field line shot. In keeping with the NCAA regional order of oppositions, each school’s fight song was played prior to their first appearance on the field.

Though his offering left the yard, Thomas agreed Blue Bell was holding on to more hits than was expected.

"There was a couple balls they hit hard to center and there was a few balls we hit hard, as well," he said. "That's just baseball, playing the environment. I thought we did a good job trying to string stuff together."

It took some time for A&M (46-13) to respond, with UT pitcher Lebanon Johnson working steadily through four innings. Schlossnagle believed it was the Texas starter's best outing of the year. He allowed one run in five innings, striking out eight with three walks and two hits.

"You just knew it was going to be a long night and whether it's the rivalry or, I mean he's super talented, or whether it was just the regional that brought out the best in him," Schlossnagle said.

However, A&M freshman Caden Sorrell kept his hands inside a 96-mph fastball from Johnson on the outside of the plate and whipped it into the net in left field to tie the game at 1 in the fifth.

Despite a rough start, Prager worked efficiently through 6 1/3 innings, throwing 87 pitches. Two of his four hits were solo home runs, the second coming off the bat of A&M transfer Kimble Schuessler in the bottom of the sixth.

The highlight of Prager's evening was an immaculate inning, striking out the first three batters in the fourth on nine pitches. It was his first time accomplishing the feat in college, he said.

"[A&M pitching] coach Max [Weiner] has said a lot to our pitching staff throughout this year that pitching isn't a game of perfect, it's a game of compete," Prager said. "I thought that kind of summed up tonight. I thought there was four walks in there that aren't going to make me very happy and that will probably eat at me for a little bit, but that will go away. I thought, this time of year especially, the most important part is helping the team win."

While the Aggie bats remained mostly dormant beyond the Sorrell home run, the Aggies were handed a pair of gifts in the eighth by Longhorn shortstop Jalen Flores. Right fielder Braden Montgomery led off the inning by reaching on a throwing error from Flores, after Flores ranged to his left to scoop up a hard-hit ball. Two outs later, A&M's Ali Camarillo reached on another throwing error from Flores, forced by another hard-hit grounder up the middle while Appel was stealing second. The latter miscue allowed Montgomery to score from third, tying the game at 2.

Appel thought he had the game won in the top of the ninth, when he turned on an inside breaking ball and paused to watch it sail into the thick summer air. What would have been a two-run shot almost any other night at Blue Bell Park ended up as a deep flyout to right as the ball couldn’t pierce through saturated air.

Texas (36-23) had a shot in the bottom of the 10th, with Will Gasparino reaching third with two outs, but was stranded when Flores popped up to right field, bringing the 7,630 inside Blue Bell Park to their feet.

It was a number that Schlossnagle thought was much too low.

"I hope whoever's in charge of the attendance numbers can do my taxes, because 7,600 is a joke," he said.

Evan Aschenbeck spelled Prager in the seventh and earned the win in 4 2/3 hitless innings. The senior left-hander walked one and struck out one.

Texas' reliever Andre Duplantier II picked up the loss in 1 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on one hit.

The Aggies advance to the region final, which will begin at 7 p.m. Sunday. A&M will face the winner of the 2 p.m. elimination game between Texas and Louisiana-Lafayette. UT beat 21st-ranked ULL 12-5 in the first round Friday. The Ragin' Cajuns stayed alive by eliminating Grambling State 12-5. Schlossnagle said A&M will most likely start left-hander Shane Sdao (4-1, 2.72 ERA).

"We won the ball game. That's a big one," Schlossnagle said. "The winners' bracket game is a big one in a regional, but we haven't won anything yet. What we did was, we earned the right to get rest while the other team's got to play."