Texas A&M baseball makes NCAA Tournament, will host Lamar to begin College Station Regional

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – With the reveal of the 64-team NCAA Tournament field Monday, Texas A&M baseball learned its postseason fate. The Aggies received the No. 12 national seed and will host the College Station Regional this weekend.

To begin the four-team, double-elimination regional, A&M (39-14) will face No. 4 seed Lamar (34-25) at 3 p.m. Friday (TV: SEC Network). The winner would play the team that advanced from the 8 p.m. Friday game between No. 2 seed USC (43-15) and No. 3 seed Texas State (36-24).

If the Aggies reach the Super Regional round, their opponent would be the winner of the Chapel Hill Regional. The host, No. 5 national seed North Carolina, will open the Chapel Hill Regional with No. 4 seed VCU, while Tennessee and East Carolina are the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively.

A&M finished four spots shy of being a top-eight national seed, which is needed to host a Super Regional in addition to a Regional. When entering this month with five straight series wins, the Aggies were widely predicted to be a top-eight national seed. They also finished an impressive third in the Southeastern Conference standings, producing an 18-11 mark in league action. But they lost two of their last three series and went one and done in the SEC Tournament, keeping them from finishing in the top-eight cut.

In the final “Field of 64” projections Baseball America and D1Baseball released Sunday night, A&M earned the No. 9 and No. 10 national seeds, respectively. The Aggies finished 14th in RPI while owning a 10-10 record against ranked teams. Here’s their record vs. each RPI opponent, per the Quadrant system: 10-13 (Quad I), 9-0 (Quad II), 4-1 (Quad III) and 16-0 (Quad IV).

Throughout this season, A&M has boasted one of the best offenses in the country. The Aggies rank fourth in slugging percentage (.567), fifth in home runs per game (2.15), seventh in runs per game (9.0), 14th in on-base percentage (.421), 24th in walks (305) and 39th in batting average (.301). Three of their offensive players – first baseman Gavin Grahovac, center fielder Caden Sorrell and second baseman/designated hitter Chris Hacopian – picked up first-team All-SEC honors.

Pitching, though, has been an issue. A&M ranks 79th in earned run average (5.13) and 134th in hits allowed per nine innings (9.63). Additionally, an Aggie pitcher has lasted six or more innings only 10 times this season, including three since April. Right-handed reliever Clayton Freshcorn has led the group, garnering first-team All-SEC recognition while producing 12 saves.

The NCAA Regionals, Super Regionals and College World Series are set for May 29-June 1, June 5-8 and June 12-22, respectively.