NCAA Baseball Morgantown Regional Primer: Texas A&M Aggies

For the first time since 1955, postseason baseball is coming back to Morgantown. Ranked fifteenth overall by the NCAA, the Mountaineers will be hosting the NCAA Morgantown Regional this Friday through Monday at Monongalia County Ballpark. Over the next few days, DubVNation will be providing you with previews of the teams WVU will be squaring off with this weekend.

The first opponent we will be covering in the run up to the Regional will be the second seeded Texas A&M Aggies. They finished the season with a record of 37-21-1 while going 16-13-1 in the SEC. They will be the only team in this regional with a tie on their record as an extra inning game with Missouri was called early so the Tigers could make their flight. They received the sixth seed in the SEC Tournament where they knocked off Florida before falling to Georgia and Ole Miss. They opened their season with Morgantown Regional fourth seed Fordham where they pulled off a three game sweep of the Rams.

Coach Rob Childress’ offense completed a solid season with a team batting average of .249 across their 59 games. The top producer in the lineup was junior shortstop Braden Shewmake who raked a robust .386 with 6 home runs and 46 RBI’s. He is one of the most highly touted pro prospects in the Morgantown Regional as he ranks as MLB Pipeline’s 32nd overall draft prospect. Their top power hitter is Ole Miss transfer and starting second baseman Bryce Blaum who hit 7 home runs as the lead off hitter but also led the team in stolen bases with 14.

The true strength of the Aggies baseball squad is their pitching staff. Their team ERA for the season was an outstanding 3.04 with a major contributor to that number being staff ace and Friday night starter John Doxakis. A highly skilled lefty, Doxakis finished an outstanding junior season with an ERA of 1.84 and a 7-3 record. He forms a dynamic duo of left-handers with sophomore Asa Lacy who finished his second season in College Station with a 7-4 record and 2.20 ERA.

Based on the NCAA Baseball seeding system, Texas A&M enters the tournament as the eighteenth overall seed for the regionals. Just missing out on hosting a regional, the Aggies appear to be one of the most dangerous challengers to the Mountaineers this weekend.