Texas A&M had to take the long road to win Game 1 of the Bryan-College Station Super Regional on Saturday against Oregon, falling behind early before the bats came to life the Aggies bested the Ducks, 10-6.
Texas A&M, the No. 3 national seed in the NCAA baseball tournament, now holds a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series with a trip to the College World Series on the line. A win on Sunday would send the Aggies to Omaha. It would be an eighth CWS appearance for the Aggies, and the first since 2022.
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But the final margin — and general cruise Texas A&M had to the finish — belied some early misfortune.
Things looked ugly early for the Aggies, as star outfielder and pitcher Braden Montgomery left the game in the 1st inning with an air cast on his right leg. He was injured sliding into home trying to score from second, sliding in awkwardly during the play at the plate.
Texas A&M fell behind quick after that, trailing 6-3 after just two innings. But the offense clicked into gear, scoring seven runs across the next three innings to swing the game into their favor, 10-6, going into the top of the sixth inning.
The Aggies would not trail the rest of the way, silencing the Oregon bats for the final seven innings of the game after the Ducks put up an early crooked number.
Offensively, Gavin Grahovac scored a trio of runs for Texas A&M on Saturday, as outfielder Hayden Schott tacked on a trio of RBIs. The Aggies also got a pair of RBIs each from Kaeden Kent and Jackson Appel. Appel was hot at the plate on Saturday, hitting a pair of doubles among his trio of hits.
And on the mound, starter Ryan Prager only lasted 1.2 innings, but the Aggies bullpen showed up when needed, shutting down the Ducks. First Chris Cortez came on and threw 5.2 innings of scoreless, two-hit baseball before giving way to Evan Aschenbeck with one out recorded in the top of the 8th inning and two runners on. Aschenbeck ended the threat in the 8th inning and closed the game out in the 9th, putting the Aggies a game away from Omaha.
Oregon will look to regroup and win two games in a row versus the Aggies, and will need similar performances from the one the Ducks got from Anson Aroz. The catcher blasted a two-run home run in the top of the 1st inning to open the scoring and tacked on another RBI via a 2nd inning single. He, along with Chase Meggers — who had two RBIs on Saturday — will need to show up and get some help to get the Ducks off the mat and on the way to Omaha.
First pitch for Game 2 of the Bryan-College Station Super Regional is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EST on Sunday with the game airing on ESPN2.
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