{"id":207696,"date":"2026-03-06T18:25:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T18:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207696\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T18:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T18:25:22","slug":"texas-am-baseball-series-preview-oakland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207696\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas A&M baseball series preview: Oakland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before we get to this weekend\u2019s opponent, let\u2019s recap the first month of the campaign. Despite February ending with their first loss (also by run-rule), the Aggies have started significantly better in 2026 than last season. Their team batting average with RISP (runner-in-scoring-position) was over 100 points higher through the first month and nearly tripled the amount of hits from one year ago (.345 BA\/39-for-110 compared to .238 BA\/16-for-67). Ten players have multiple hits with RISP through the first 12 games, with Caden Sorrell\u2019<\/a>s and Jake Duer<\/a>\u2019s seven tied for the lead.<\/p>\n

Entering March, the schedule provides Texas A&M (11-1) with one final non-conference weekend series before SEC play. Tuesday\u2019s 11-1 run-rule victory over Incarnate Word<\/a> started a five-game homestand in Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park and continues with a weekend set against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies out of the Horizon League. The three-game series will mark the first ever meeting between both programs.<\/p>\n

Located northwest of Detroit in Auburn Hills, Mich., Oakland is playing their 26th season at the Division I level. Head coach Brian Nelson is in his first official season (second overall) at the helm but has been on staff with the Golden Grizzlies since 2021. Nelson is no stranger to the B-CS area, as he managed the Brazos Valley Bombers of the Texas Collegiate League to back-to-back league titles in 2019 and 2020. Oakland has struggled in their first 12 games, posting a 1-11 record. This is the program\u2019s second trip to the Lone Star State, as they began the 2026 campaign in Beaumont, salvaging the series finale versus Lamar in extra innings. That also marked their only win of the year, as they continue a season-opening 20-game road trip.<\/p>\n

The Aggies will be the third top-25 team the Golden Grizzlies will have faced, all hailing from the SEC (#11 Georgia and #19 Tennessee). With a 10.32 ERA and a .234 batting average, Oakland will be looking to pull off a decent-sized upset in Aggieland this weekend. The Golden Grizzlies were selected to finish last (fifth) in the Horizon League Preseason Poll but earned one of the five first-place votes from one of the league\u2019s head coaches.<\/p>\n

As for the Maroon and White, this weekend provides one final opportunity to test out personnel and lineup moves before the gauntlet of conference play starts. The Aggies sit at number 22 in the D1 Baseball Top 25<\/a>, moving up one spot in each of the first three editions of the poll. Seven of Texas A&M\u2019s 10 SEC opponents are also ranked, emphasizing how important it is to win weekend series against lesser foes.<\/p>\n

The offense is scoring 9.92 runs per game, while the pitching staff has allowed just 39 total (3.25\/game). Maintaining this margin is critical to taking at least two games this weekend, especially if the weather forecast plays a factor.<\/p>\n

Two guys who need to stay hot are outfielders Terrence Kiel II<\/a> and Duer. Kiel II drove home runs in all three plate appearances with RISP last weekend, including a two-RBI night in the Friday opener against Virginia Tech. Meanwhile, Duer is on another planet right now, holding an eight-game hit streak. Over this stretch, which began against Penn, the Flower Mound, Texas, native is 14-for-30 (.467) with nine RBI, six extra-base hits (four doubles and two homers), scored six times, and drawn four walks. On Tuesday against the Cardinals, Duer went 3-for-3 with three RBI, two walks and a homer, improving his season batting average to .432. Through the team\u2019s first 12 contests, Duer holds the best batting average and has most hits (19), is tied for most doubles (5), and ranks second in RBI (14) and on-base percentage (.510). Both guys, along with INF Boston Kellner<\/a>, have reached safely in all 12 games, a streak all three players will look to continue.<\/p>\n

Game Info (Saturday game moved to Friday due to weather):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before we get to this weekend\u2019s opponent, let\u2019s recap the first month of the campaign. Despite February ending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,95798],"class_list":["post-207696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-texas-aggie-baseball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}