Texas A&M drops a 17-3 decision in game two at Vanderbilt... Game three of the series Sunday at 3:02 p.m.
— Texas A&M Baseball (@AggieBaseball) March 25, 2017
Texas A&M baseball has gone from a lost season to one of the hottest teams in the country in the span of a few short weeks. How did the Aggies pull it off?
First of all, let me start by saying that the Aggies still have to play Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Arkansas. Two of those opponents are ranked, however even if they weren’t nothing comes easy in conference play. That’s three SEC series left on the table, and that’s probably going to be three opponents that will fight tooth and nail to get to the top of the standings or simply to save face.
Speaking of the standings, Kentucky, the team that swept the Aggies to start out conference play is 14-7 in SEC play. Auburn and Mississippi State are 14-7, too. Texas A&M, Arkansas, LSU and Florida are all currently deadlocked at 13-8. The short and simple: three teams are tied for first place and four teams are tied for second place. How about that?
Texas A&M is one of those teams tied for second place. I know there are three more conference series left on the table, but looking back to two months ago, Texas A&M’s current place in conference standings is nothing short of remarkable.
The Downward Slide
I’m sure many of you remember early March. The Aggies lost a gut-wrenching 15-inning game to TCU. They followed it up with a heartbreaking loss to Baylor on a walk-off grand slam that same weekend. Sure, A&M swept UTRGV and Brown the next week, but that was immediately followed by a loss to rival Texas.
The Aggies were swept at home by Kentucky to start SEC play. That marked the first time the Aggies had been swept at home since 2013. Looking at where Kentucky is now, that doesn’t look quite as bad as it did in March. However, Aggie fans had know way of knowing that at the time.
The next series, against Vanderbilt was interesting. Brigham Hill (2.62 ERA) started out strong, but a slip-up led to the Commodores taking the lead for good in Game 1. I’d rather not talk about Game 2, but I don’t have any choice. I think that 17-3 beating speaks for itself. Stephen Kolek (3.52 ERA) got lit up. Things started to look up after the Aggies took Game 3 behind a very strong outing from Corbin Martin (3.13 ERA). Martin has consistently been a pitcher with all the potential in the world who hadn’t quite put it together. Spoiler alert: he finally started to put things together that weekend, and at just the right time.