The Fall of Texas A&M Baseball: What’s Been Going Wrong for the Former One Seed?
College World Series runner-up Texas A&M charged into the pre-season polls ahead of the pack. Taking the number one seed, this team looked flawless. There is something to be said about what exactly determines a team’s ranking in the pre-season polls. Teams change, coaching staff changes and the talent of returning athletes may fluctuate.
A&M looked quite promising in their first few games. They crushed Elon, sweeping their first series of the regular season. Then came CalPoly, again this was a team worthy of being the national runner-up. Until the final game of the series. CalPoly was not prepared to give up a sweep and they squeezed in a 3-2 victory. Unfortunately, this loss to CalPoly was only the first of the Aggie’s problems.
Despite pulling out a few wins, has taken beating after beating, unable to secure a winning streak longer than two games. Their issues do not seem to lie with their bullpen, always losing by just a few runs. Their hitting, however, looks incredibly inconsistent. The projected number one ranked team in the country should not be demolishing schools like Prairie View A&M with a 14-0 shutout win in seven innings and then allowing 17th-ranked Alabama to squeeze by with a 4-6 win and then a series sweep.
What this team needs most now is consistency. Going from the projected number-one ranked team in the nation to not even in the top 25 is cause for concern. With 20 games already behind them this team has got to step it up if they want to find even a shred of a chance to play in the postseason. It’s clear something is very wrong. It is expected that upsets will happen in college baseball, but when it becomes a pattern can we even call it an upset anymore? Even accounting for recent injuries this team has suffered some of these losses are inexcusable. The SEC is a largely competitive conference in baseball and the Aggies have not been representing it well. It seems unlikely that as we move into the season, we will see any sort of comeback from this year’s A&M team.
