Oregon went on a nice run through the Santa Barbara Regional, which ended up being pretty easy. The Ducks have gone 40-18 so far this season, including 19-11 in the Pac-12. They took two of three from Oregon State in the regular season, so they can play for sure. But, statistically speaking, they were just ok. They hit .280 as a team and three starters hit over .300. Two hitters have an OPS over 1.000, and 1B Jacob Walsh leads the team with 18 homers. They have 93 dingers as a team.

In comparison, A&M has a team average of .299 with 130 homers and a team OPS of .977.

Oregon’s pitching staff is pretty good as well. Their team ERA is 4.62, with three starters with ERA under 5 (which isn’t bad in college baseball). They rely heavily on those three starters — Grayson Grinsell, Kevin Seitter and RJ Gordon — with Seitter throwing 135 pitches in the regional clinching shutout of UC Santa Barbara. But they only threw one shutout this season (that clincher), while A&M has thrown 11. A&M’s team ERA is 3.85 and Ryan Prager and Shane Sdao should be a match for whoever Oregon throws, but the Aggies have to find a third starter. Oregon has no such concern.

By starting the Super Regional Saturday, the Aggies get another boost. They get to keep Prager and Sdao on their regular schedules, as they pitched Saturday and Sunday this past week. It’ll be interesting to see how Jim Schlossnagle operates the bullpen beyond Evan Aschenbeck, Chris Cortez and Brad Rudis.

The Supers won’t be the only game in town Saturday. Well, technically they will, because the other event is a match. Mexico and Brazil will play a soccer friendly at Kyle Field Saturday night, so College Station will be far more bonkers than it usually is in the early park of June.

It may sound weird, but the baseball transfer portal is already open. It opened yesterday and will remain open until July 2. I’ll keep you posted with moves as they happen, but there are already some attention-getting names who have declared their intention to transfer (from other teams, not A&M), so the Aggies could be well active in the portal again this summer.

Albuquerque 3-star LB Mason Posa is a guy that A&M has been after pretty hard for the last few months, but I am now getting the feeling that he’s heading for Wisconsin and A&M knows it. As a result, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that A&M has now get an official visit with Riley Pettijohn set up for June 21. They’ll have to come from behind to get him, but Pettijohn (in my opinion) would be a step up. It also likely means they’ll show the love to 4-star Kamar Archie when he visits this weekend.

With the return of the football game with Texas, there has been debate about whether Bonfire should return to campus. President Mark Welsh nixed that idea today, and I think it was the right one. He hit on the key reasons in this paragraph: ““Among those who supported bringing Bonfire back, most highlighted the bonding experience and leadership and organizational skills learned by student body participants during the cut and build phases of Bonfire. Therefore, if students weren’t organizing, leading and building the Bonfire, then they didn’t think we should bring it back.”

There’s just no way to take Bonfire back to what it used to be, and these key elements wouldn’t be allowed due to potential litigation issues. So — and I say this as someone who was out there the morning after the collapse — if it’s not a “student Bonfire”, it’s not Bonfire.

Welsh made a tough call, and he’ll likely catch hell for it. But that’s what leaders do, and it’s nice to have one at Texas A&M.

The Aggies hosted Wasatch (Utah) Academy PG Jeremiah Johnson over the weekend as they continue to look to fill up their roster. Johnson, a 3-star, was committed to Oklahoma State but pulled the plug on that in late May. The Aggies are one of the teams with spots available, so they got in after him. He’s also checking out Wisconsin-Green Bay (take from that what you will) before making his new decision.

A&M hasn’t given up on the portal, either. They’re talking with Cal State-Northridge SF De’Sean Allen-Eikens, who has a year of eligibility left. The 6-foot-6 Allen-Eikens averaged 18.8 PPG and 5.3 RPG last year while shooting 48.2% from the floor — 36.1% from 3-point range. He would be an absolutely perfect pickup for A&M if they can get him, because he’d add a high-scoring wing who can shoot from 3.

One of the reasons the Aggies are appealing to basketball players going into the portal now, besides the fact they should be really good next year, is simple: they have open space on the roster. Not many high-caliber teams still do. Technically, A&M is full too, but they have space because they have multiple veterans playing their Covid seasons, which don’t count against the 13 scholarship limit.

By the way, summer workouts for basketball began today.