The Texas A&M baseball team, coming off a series victory at LSU, will play a nonconference game at Rice at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Reckling Park.
The Aggies opened Southeastern Conference play by taking two of three games from eighth-ranked LSU at Alex Box Stadium. A&M (12-7) outscored LSU 23-18 led by Dylan Rock and Jack Moss who both hit. 429, while Austin Bost hit .400. A&M had hit only nine homers in its first 16 games, but had five homers in the series, two by Rock.
Rice, under first-year head coach Jose Cruz Jr., is 6-15. The Owls opened Conference-USA play over the weekend by losing two of three to Alabama-Birmingham. Rice was picked by the Conference-USA coaches to finish eighth in the 12-team league behind Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, Texas-San Antonio and Florida International.
A&M’s starting pitcher against Rice will be freshman right-hander Khristian Curtis (2-0, 0.98 ERA). The Owls will counter with sophomore left-hander Thomas Burbank (0-2, 7.71 ERA).
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A&M will return home to play Auburn in a three-game SEC series this weekend.
Looking at the polls: Vanderbilt (17-2) moved atop the USA Today/coaches poll, replacing Ole Miss (15-4) which slipped to second with Texas (17-3) third. A&M’s impressive showing against LSU earned it enough votes to be ninth among those outside the top 25. LSU (15-5) slipped to 18th.
Vanderbilt tops the d1baseball.com and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association’s polls. Texas is second by d1baseball.com with Arkansas (16-3) third. Arkansas is second by the writers with Tennessee (19-1) third.
Cruising Cavaliers: The Virginia Cavaliers (19-1, 5-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) are off to their best start in program history and tied with Tennessee for best record in the country. They’re also first in scoring at 11.8 runs per game after outscoring Boston College 34-9 in the second and third games.
TCU still hopping: The TCU Horned Frogs (14-5) are off to a good start under longtime assistant Kirk Saarloos who was promoted after Jim Schlossnagle left for A&M. TCU opened Big 12 play at Baylor by winning two of three. Freshman David Bishop has 30 RBIs, leadoff man Elijah Nunez has raised his batting average from .225 last season to .333 with 14 steals, and closer River Ridings has six saves.
TCU was picked by the coaches to finish fourth behind Texas, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.
Husker Clunker: It hasn’t been a good start for Big Ten preseason favorite Nebraska (8-11), which opens conference play at home against Michigan this weekend. The Cornhuskers dropped two of three at home to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (12-10) of the Southland Conference, and the losses were notable.
Nebraska managed one hit against Hayden Thomas and Zach Garcia in a 4-1 loss Saturday. The Huskers surrendered five home runs in a 21-4 loss Sunday — the most lopsided home defeat in 30 years and the most runs allowed in 14.
It’s in the Cards: Louisville (16-4) started the season by splitting six games, but the Cardinals have won 13 of 14, including a three games sweep of Notre Dame, which had been ranked No. 1 nationally in one poll. Louisville scored 31 times against a pitching staff that entered the series second nationally with an ERA of 1.66 and had allowed four runs or less in all but one game.
“We’ve had some great clubs in the past not get off to a great start on those first weekend trips,” coach Dan McDonnell said. “I try not to get too down. It’s good to address things, learn about them and move on.”
The Cards had dropped off the radar after reaching a bracket final at the 2019 College World Series. The pandemic canceled most of the 2020 season, and last year they lost seven of their last nine and didn’t make the NCAA tournament.