No. 5 Texas A&M begins their attempt to reach the College World Series today with the College Station regional, which pits the Aggies against Oral Roberts, Louisiana and TCU. AY takes a look at each team and their likely starting lineups.
Texas A&M (37-18, No. 1 seed in the College Station regional, No. 5 national seed)
Possible starting lineup:
3B Trever Werner (.261, 6 HR, 23 RBI)
1B Jack Moss (.373/6/42)
LF Dylan Rock (.326/17/54)
DH Austin Bost (.358/7/35)
2B Ryan Targac (.298/14/53)
C Troy Claunch (.302/3/45)
RF Brett Minnich (.297/7/47)
CF Jordan Thompson (.242/3/20)
SS Kole Kaler (.243/2/28)
P Micah Dallas (5-3, 5.64 ERA)
The 2022 edition of the Aggie baseball team is coming to bash you. That's their gameplan, to apply pressure, work deep into counts to force starters to throw a lot of pitches and jump on mistakes. There's no respite until you get to the bottom of the order, and both Thompson and Kaler have heated up down the stretch. A&M also steals a lot of bases, stealing 74 in 96 attempts. Opponents only tried 40 steals and were successful 29 times.
A&M's starting pitching has been a question mark for much of the year, but Dallas was outstanding in his lone start in the SEC Tournament. He had one of his best outings of the season, giving up 1 hit and striking out 7 in 5 innings in a 10-0 win over Florida.
The Aggies are a heavy favorite to come out of the College Station regional, but the first step has to be taking care of Oral Roberts this afternoon.
Oral Roberts (38-18, No. 4 seed in the College Station Regional)
Possible starting lineup:
1B Jake McMurray (.303, 4 HR, 36 RBI)
2B Mack McCroskey (.319/5/40)
RF Caleb Denny (.336/11/57)
SS Jackson Loftin (.348/10/54)
DH Justin Quinn (.294/1/21)
3B Holden Breeze (.335/3/41)
LF Joshua Cox (.333/5/35)
CF Connor Beichler (.313/0/20)
C Alec Jones (.183/3/21)
P Ledgend Smith (7-4, 2.41 ERA)
The champions of the Summit League, Oral Roberts crushed Omaha 21-2 to take the league title. They're hitting .306 as a team, so they're very similar to A&M in their ability to put pressure on opposing pitchers. They beat both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State earlier this year, but went a combined 1-5 against Dallas Baptist and Ole Miss, teams A&M handled during their regular season.
Loftin is one of the best hitters in the postseason period. He's also stolen 25 bases in 30 attempts, as ORU has stolen 72 as a team. They haven't face an offense like A&M's yet, but this game could be a slugfest if Dallas struggles early.
On the other side of the bracket, TCU and Louisiana will face off for the right to face the winner of A&M and Oral Roberts. The loser will fall into the loser's bracket, with one more loss ending their season.
No. 2 TCU (36-20, No. 2 seed in the College Station regional)
Possible starting lineup:
CF Elijah Nunez (.297, 1 HR, 28 RBI)
SS Tommy Sacco (.350/12/51)
3B Brayden Taylor (.314/10/44)
C Kurtis Bryne (.287/4/40)
DH Bobby Goodloe (.286/1/16)
1B David Bishop (.260/6/46)
RF Luke Boyers (.257/6/37)
2B Gray Rodgers (.254/4/40)
LF Garrison Berkley (.194/0/2)
P Brett Walker (5-2, 4.75 ERA)
This isn't one of the powerhouse TCU teams we've seen in recent years, but they were still the regular season Big 12 champion and top seed in the Big 12 Tournament -- where they beat Baylor and then were promptly bounced by Texas and Oklahoma State.
New coach and former Astros pitcher Kirk Saarloos has two huge bats in the middle of his lineup in Sacco and Taylor (the shortstops in this regional are amazing). Pitcher Riley Cornelio (4-4, 4.41 ERA) was second team All-Big 12 this year, and A&M could see him if the Horned Frogs don't use him today.
TCU doesn't have the power that a team like A&M does, so they run. A lot. And they're outstanding at stealing bases, taking 91 in 103 tries. Nunez was 30-32 in steal attempts, while Sacco was 17-19 and Taylor took all 10 bases he tried to steal. The Horned Frogs will look to create havoc on the bases, so the best thing to do is not let them on to begin with.
Louisiana (36-21, No. 3 seed in the College Station Regional)
DH Conner Kimple (.319, 9 HR, 36 RBI)
SS Kyle DeBarge (.292/3/30)
1B Carson Roccaforte (.379/16/68)
3B Tyler Robertson (.322/5/33)
RF Heath Hood (.341/4/34)
C Julian Brock (.307/6/33)
LF Will Veillon (.234/3/13)
2B Jonathan Brandon (.229/1/12)
CF Max Marusak (.256/2/23)
P Brandon Talley (3-3, 3.64 ERA)
Just as Oral Roberts seems to mirror A&M offensively, Louisiana does much the same when it comes to facing TCU. The Sun Belt Tournament champions run even more than TCU does, almost to an absurd level: 134 steals in 172 attempts. Five players have at least 15 steals, including Roccaforte, who has stolen 23 bags in 29 tries.
Like TCU, Louisiana builds around one huge bat in Roccaforte and backs him up with another very good one in Robertson. The Ragin' Cajuns come in on a 5-game winning streak, but lost 4 of 5 before that. Pitching depth is a concern for them, but like the Horned Frogs, they're going to look to run early and often and get key hits with runners in scoring position.
