Texas A&M beat Mississippi State 7-6 to lock up the No. 3 SEC Tournament seed and strengthen Michael Earley’s Coach of the Year case.
Texas A&M baseball didn’t just save its weekend against Mississippi State. It may have cemented Michael Earley’s SEC Coach of the Year case.
The No. 10 Aggies beat No. 13 Mississippi State 7-6 on Saturday, winning the rubber match and securing the No. 3 seed in next week’s SEC Tournament.
READ MORE: Texas A&M Locks Up No. 3 SEC Tournament Seed
Texas A&M finishes the regular season 39-13 overall and 18-11 in SEC play, a remarkable turnaround for a program that missed the postseason a year ago.
The decisive swing came in the eighth inning, when Bear Harrison delivered a two-run double to give the Aggies the final lead.
Texas A&M’s pitching staff had to grind through another tense afternoon, but the Aggies found enough outs late to finish one of their biggest series wins of the season.
For Earley, the turnaround has been impossible to ignore.
Texas A&M was picked to finish 13th in the SEC before the season, and plenty of questions followed Earley after a rough first year.
Instead, the Aggies answered with 18 league wins, six SEC series victories and a résumé that should put them firmly in the top-eight national seed conversation.
The path wasn’t simple. Gavin Grahovac missed time early, Caden Sorrell dealt with injury issues, and the rotation never fully settled. Still, the Aggies kept winning.
Their SEC run included a sweep of Texas, series wins over LSU and Mississippi State, and road success against Florida. That’s the kind of profile that plays in the NCAA Tournament selection room.
Athletic director Trev Alberts stuck with Earley, and that patience now looks like one of the best decisions of Texas A&M’s athletic year.
The Aggies will head to Hoover with a double-bye, giving them a chance to rest before beginning SEC Tournament play. No matter what happens there, Texas A&M has already changed the story.
A season that began with doubt now has the Aggies thinking Omaha.
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