Well, folks, the aggies finally managed to beat Texas in baseball this season. After the Horns got the broom out last weekend in College Station and Austin, a&m got a much-needed win this afternoon in Oklahoma City at the Big XII Tournament. As we noted over on 40 Acre Sports earlier this week, the best thing about this tournament is that this loss does not propel Texas into a losers' bracket wherein Augie would have to choose between overusing his pitchers' arms the week before the NCAAs or conceding defeat. Instead, Texas gets a chance against Nebraska on Saturday, and depending on how the cards fall could still be in the championship game on Sunday.
As far as today's ballgame goes, you have to give a lot of credit to the farmers' winning pitcher, Kirkland Rivers. He was making only his second start of the year and held a potent Longhorn offense in check for 6 2/3. Rivers got his main support from a five-run a&m 3rd spurred by a Craig Stinson grand slam. The aggies' offense impressively answered after Texas had taken a 2-1 lead in the top of the inning.
That said, Texas had chances. They left the bases loaded in the top of the 4th, and stranded at least one runner in six of the nine frames. The bottom line, though is that the aggies are a pretty good ballclub that desperately needed a win, and Texas may very well have needed a wake-up call after cruising to five straight wins coming into this one. As the online webcast announcer commented during yesterday's K-State game, Augie Garrido and the Longhorns "have bigger fish to fry" next week.
Despite the fact that the Cornhuskers are Texas' next opponent, do check out Corn Nation as always for great Big XII baseball coverage.