{"id":247945,"date":"2026-04-13T18:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T18:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247945\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T18:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T18:58:09","slug":"takeaways-from-aggies-series-victory-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247945\/","title":{"rendered":"Takeaways from Aggies series victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"Texas A&amp;M pitcher Gavin Lyons (27) celebrates a final strikeout to win the Lone Star Showdown against Texas at Blue Bell Park on Saturday, April 11, 2026 in College Station, Texas.\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Texas A&amp;M pitcher Gavin Lyons (27) celebrates a final strikeout to win the Lone Star Showdown against Texas at Blue Bell Park on Saturday, April 11, 2026 in College Station, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n<p>COLLEGE STATION\u00a0\u2014 It wasn\u2019t just thunder this weekend; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/sports\/tamu\/\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Texas A&amp;M baseball\u2019<\/a>s bats were also booming, securing its first series win over rival Texas since 2012.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/sports\/college\/aggies\/article\/texas-am-aggies-longhorns-score-today-sec-baseball-22201072.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">lengthy weather delay<\/a> and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/sports\/college\/aggies\/article\/texas-am-aggies-longhorns-score-today-sec-baseball-22202217.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">series finale cancellation<\/a>, it was only Mother Nature that could stop\u00a0an\u00a0Aggies offense that tallied 20 runs en route to two key wins.<\/p>\n<p>On the mound, A&amp;M did enough to keep a strong Longhorns lineup at bay. A Texas offense that was one of the best in the SEC notched 17 hits and 12 runs over the weekend. A&amp;M has now won three consecutive SEC series and pushed itself into second place in the conference standings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs much as I want to say there\u2019s not (more emotion in playing Texas), there definitely is,\u201d Caden Sorrell said after Saturday\u2019s win. \u201cA lot of history with them. Obviously, we\u2019ve been rivals for a long time, and obviously, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/sports\/college\/longhorns\/baseball\/article\/texas-texas-am-jim-schlossnagle-return-22190374.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">with the stuff that happened a couple of years ago<\/a>, it\u2019s a little more personal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here are the takeaways from Texas A&amp;M\u2019s weekend vs Texas:<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Texas A&amp;M head coach Michael Earley greets Texas Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle ahead of game two of the Lone Star Showdown at Blue Bell Park on Saturday, April 11, 2026 in College Station, Texas.\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:4 \/ 3\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Texas A&amp;M head coach Michael Earley greets Texas Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle ahead of game two of the Lone Star Showdown at Blue Bell Park on Saturday, April 11, 2026 in College Station, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n<p>Michael Earley showing growth as coach<\/p>\n<p>Coming into arguably the biggest weekend of the season after back-to-back series wins, making a change to your weekend rotation could\u2019ve backfired. Still, head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/sports\/college\/aggies\/article\/michael-earley-texas-am-baseball-sec-aggies-21290263.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Michael Earley<\/a> did just that, and it worked out masterfully.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>Questions about\u00a0Friday\u2019s starter,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/sports\/college\/aggies\/article\/texas-am-longhorns-aggies-baseball-sec-lone-star-22195330.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Shane\u00a0Sdao<\/a>, who has allowed seven home runs in SEC play and nine total coming into the weekend, are fair despite his preseason projection as a first-round draft pick. But it was a tweak on Saturday that made the difference.<\/p>\n<p>Sdao once again took\u00a0the ball Friday and was solid, going four innings, allowing four runs on five hits with six strikeouts. Texas had scored 59 runs over its previous eight games, coming into the series.<\/p>\n<p>But on Saturday, Earley bumped up the usual Sunday starter, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/sports\/college\/aggies\/article\/gavin-grahovac-aiden-simms-texas-am-baseball-sec-21337722.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Aiden Sims<\/a>, in place of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/story\/sports\/college\/aggies\/2025\/04\/17\/texas-am-arkansas-razorbacks-aggies-game-today-baseball\/83109701007\/\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Weston Moss<\/a>. Sims weathered a 1-hour, 38-minute delay after just the first inning to clinch the program\u2019s first series win over Texas since 2012. He pitched\u00a04\u2154 innings, allowing three runs on four hits with three strikeouts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re good. They\u2019re all good players,\u201d Earley said Saturday of his pitching staff. \u201cThey\u2019ve all shown the ability to pitch well. They\u2019ve also shown the ability to not pitch well. So, you can make a choice, you can do one of two things, and they\u2019re pitching good, simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>After coming into the season with questions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/story\/sports\/college\/aggies\/2025\/05\/30\/michael-earley-texas-am-aggies-baseball\/83903048007\/\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">about his job security<\/a>, Earley flashed strong decision-making in a key series.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Texas A&amp;M outfielder Caden Sorrell (13) celebrates a home run while running the bases during the Lone Star Showdown against Texas at Blue Bell Park on Saturday, April 11, 2026 in College Station, Texas.\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Texas A&amp;M outfielder Caden Sorrell (13) celebrates a home run while running the bases during the Lone Star Showdown against Texas at Blue Bell Park on Saturday, April 11, 2026 in College Station, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n<p>A&amp;M\u2019s offense proves its among nation\u2019s best<\/p>\n<p>The Aggies&#8217; lineup has been strong all season, entering the weekend as the SEC\u2019s third-best offense in batting average and hits. Still, they hadn\u2019t faced a pitching staff as potent as Texas. The Longhorns entered the series first in the conference in ERA (3.07).<\/p>\n<p>Twenty runs, 13 walks, and 16 hits, including 10 extra-base hits, later, it\u2019s safe to say the Aggies&#8217; offense is among the best in the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>Preseason All-SEC selections shined for A&amp;M. First baseman\u00a0Gavin Grahovac finished the weekend 4-for-9 with three extra-base hits. Sorrell finished 4-for-10 with one home run.<\/p>\n<p>Heading into the weekend, no Longhorns starter had an ERA worse than 2.74. However, Friday starter Ruger Riojas allowed five runs and five hits over five innings, while Saturday, Luke Harrison lasted just \u2154 of an inning and was belted for eight runs on six hits.<\/p>\n<p>Aggies have earned the right to more respect<\/p>\n<p>Heading into the season, the Aggies were picked to finish 13th in the SEC. Given the year they had last season, when they finished 30-26, including 11-19 in the SEC, pessimism was probably understandable. But halfway through conference play, it\u2019s clear A&amp;M is a threat to any team in the country.<\/p>\n<p>A&amp;M is up to 12th in the RPI rankings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>LSU, Florida, and Ole Miss are upcoming road opponents; two of those teams were ranked in D1baseball\u2019s latest poll.\u00a0Auburn and Mississippi State, each ranked in the top 15 of that same poll, will visit College Station, giving the\u00a0Aggies plenty of games to establish themselves among the conference\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n<p>But through the halfway point, the Aggies are among the better teams in the country and deserve praise right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas A&amp;M pitcher Gavin Lyons (27) celebrates a final strikeout to win the Lone Star Showdown against Texas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2845,75202,2846,27,2844,52717,67041,29,20340,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-247945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-college-baseball","9":"tag-college-world-series-baseball","10":"tag-sec-baseball","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-am-aggies-baseball","13":"tag-texas-am-baseball","14":"tag-texas-baseball","15":"tag-texas-headlines","16":"tag-texas-longhorns-baseball","17":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}