Texas A&M fell to USC last night in game three of the College Station Regional by a score of 14-3. The Trojans began cruising early on in the game last night and never looked back, as timely hitting completely abandoned the Aggies throughout the game and a conga line of pitchers in the maroon and white were all completely ineffective.
The Aggies are now on the doorstep of elimination, with their entire season coming down to this final game tonight. Though Texas A&M has never failed to advance when playing in a regional in their home ballpark, the odds don’t look great for them in tonight’s contest, it has to be said.
Everything seemed to be conspiring in favor of the Aggies last night (except, of course, for the actual draw of teams playing in the regional, but we’ve covered that to a great extent). USC was not throwing one of their best arms and was having to play in the second straight game of the day, while the Aggies would have a bit more rest.
However, you wouldn’t have known that was the case from watching the game last night. Though there were several times that Aggie players got on base, Texas A&M was hardly ever able to convert on those opportunities, and the Aggies pitching was positively awful.
Texas A&M’s fatal flaw has Aggies on brink of elimination against USC
When news broke late Saturday that Texas A&M’s ace, Aiden Sims, would miss the rest of the season, Aggie fans knew that this could be a tough game. Many had anticipated that Earley and company were simply saving their best arm for the final matchup, but when it turned out that it was an injury that would prevent him from playing, things became very dour indeed.
Without Sims, the Aggies are in a really tough spot. Weston Moss gave the Aggies a great start against Texas State on Saturday night, but he’s up and down as a pitcher. Shane Sdao has regressed near the end of the season and was ineffective on Friday.
The fatal flaw of this team has always been pitching, and those chickens are coming home to roost. USC has maybe the best pitching staff that the Aggies have yet seen this year, and they are no doubt going to do whatever they can to put their ace back out their against Texas A&M in a pinch tonight— the Big 10 pitcher of the year, Mason Edwards.
Texas A&M has their work cut out for them, in other words. There’s a lot that could go wrong for them tonight— yet, time and time again this season, we have seen this group pull together and step up when they need to.
Do the Aggies have the ability to do that one more time, digging deep and finding a way? If not now, then there will not be another chance. Hopefully the Aggies can find a way past their pitching woes one more time as they look to advance to the Super Regional against UNC.
Add us as a preferred source on Google