Texas A&M Football: Top 10 Lonestar Showdown games
3. 1989 Baseball: The Birth of Olsen Magic – No. 1 Texas A&M 18, No. 3 Texas 14
A&M and UT have played a lot of great baseball games, but perhaps no Aggie win was as important as these two. The series in April of 1989 was significant for many reasons – it had implications not just for the Southwest Conference, but also nationally as both schools were ranked in the top three.
A&M had lost just one game coming into the weekend, but dropped game one of the UT series. To stay at the top the Aggies needed to win games two and three, and senior John Byington delivered. Coach Mark Johnson had used the phrase “Olsen Magic” before the Aggies began batting in the bottom of the ninth, but Byington made it literal that weekend, hitting two walk off home runs to give the series to the Aggies.
A 14-9 deficit heading into the bottom of the ninth of game one seemed impossible to overcome, but then, magic happened. Thanks to errors in the field, Texas A&M managed to bat around the order and load the bases for “Big John” in game one.
The score was 14-14 when Byington came up for the second time in the inning, and with just one out only a hard-hit ball was needed to win the game. Instead, Byington delivered three extra runs, winning the game for the Aggies on a walk off grand slam. Game two saw a lot less scoring, but just as much excitement. The Aggies would win 8-5 on a Byington three run homer in the bottom of the ninth that night.