July 30, 2007
a review of the 2007 Texas A&M baseball season
Perhaps an excerpt from Vince Lombardi's speech "What it Takes to Be No. 1" sums up the attitude second-year Texas A&M head coach Rob Childress and his staff are trying to ingrain in the Aggie baseball program.
"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit."
It is not by coincidence that a poster of the entire speech given by the legendary football coach hangs in Childress' office. It is that winning habit which Childress desires to return to the A&M baseball program. If 2007 was any indication, college baseball fans should get in the habit of seeing A&M winning Big 12 championships and going deep in the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to the 2007 season, college baseball prognosticators predicted a slight improvement as the Aggies returned just 14 letterwinners from the 2006 team that failed to qualify for the Big 12 Tournament in Childress' first season.
What the experts didn't know was the team had a resolve to not let the events of the 2006 season happen again. Beginning in the fall with 6 a.m. workouts, a team unity was forged through competition and grueling physical tests.
Because of their dedication to the program, the Aggies proved the experts wrong and completed the biggest turnaround in the NCAA in 2007 by winning both a Big 12 Tournament and an NCAA Regional championship.
Before starting the rigorous Big 12 portion of its schedule, A&M had already made headlines by opening the season with an 18-2 record. Included in those 18 wins were victories over No. 1 Rice, No. 9 Oregon State, and a three-game sweep of perennial power Florida to earn a spot in the national top 10.
After going 3-3 against Kansas and Oklahoma to start conference play, A&M had their backs against the wall for the first time the following weekend against Nebraska. After splitting the first two games, A&M scored on an RBI single by Luke Anders in the bottom of the ninth to keep its league mark above .500.
The Aggies scratched and clawed their way through the rest of the regular season, finishing with 41 wins, including an impressive 28-2 record against non-conference opponents.
Entering the Big 12 Tournament, the Aggies were virtually assured of a berth in the NCAA championships, but were still playing for the right to host a regional. Wins against No. 5 Texas and Kansas State earned A&M a spot in the ????championship game against Baylor.
The Aggies pounced on the Bears to the tune of 14 runs on 20 hits, both Big 12 championship game records. After reliever Gary Campfield recorded the final out, catcher Craig Stinson was the first to meet him at the mound in what started a conference championship dogpile that had not happened for the Aggies since they won the regular-season title in 1999.
"There are two things that I really enjoy as a coach," Childress said. "One is sitting on the bench and watching your team dogpile after winning a championship and the other is listening to the guys on the bus on the way home after winning a championship."
Stinson, who went 11-for-19 with nine RBI in the tourney to earn MVP honors, and Campfield were not the only heroes. Kirkland Rivers held the Longhorns to just three runs in 6 2/3 innings in just his second start of the year and unheralded Travis Starling threw 3 2/3 scoreless innings of relief to defeat Kansas State and send the Aggies to the championship game.
During the championship game, the Aggies learned they would indeed host one of 16 NCAA Regionals at Olsen Field. Louisiana-Lafayette, the Sun Belt Conference regular-season champs, Ohio State, the Big ten Tournament champions, and LeMoyne, the Metro Atlantic Tournament champs, would battle for the right to advance to the NCAA Super Regional round.
A&M opened the tournament with a hard-fought, 7-2 win over a scrappy LeMoyne squad and UL-Lafayette squeaked by OSU, 5-4, to set up the all-important winner's bracket game. Despite a furious rally in the ninth, the Ragin' Cajuns held on the defeat A&M, 5-4 and send the Aggies into their first elimination game.
Blake Stouffer picked the perfect time to have a career game and help keep the Aggies' season alive, hitting for the cycle and driving in six runs in A&M's 10-4 win over the Ohio State. He became just the third person in NCAA history to hit for the cycle twice in one season.
The win set up a rematch with ULL later that night. A&M freshman starting pitcher Scott Migl threw a season-high seven innings to lead the Aggies to a 4-1 win and force a winner-take-all championship game the next night.
A&M fans were unsure how many bullets Childress had left in his gun after already having to play four games in three days. Turns out he needed just one.
Sophomore righty Kyle Thebeau was given the starting nod and he did not disappoint, turning in the most electric performance of the season. A&M scored four runs in the top of the second and that was all Thebeau needed. He fanned 13 batters, including all three men he faced in the ninth to earn the Aggies the regional championship and another opportunity to dogpile.
"Tonight was amazing," Stouffer said after the game. "We have come a long way from last season to dogpiling. This team's focus has been on never quitting and going on the field every day and competing. There is no doubt that all the hard work to get to this point was worth it."
That was the final dogpile for the Aggies in 2007, but rest assured, the groundwork laid by the 2007 team will lead to many more.
2007 BASEBALL TEAM FACTS
- The 2007 Aggies became the 16th team in school history to win 40 games.
- A&M won the school's first Big 12 Baseball Tournament Championship and third Big 12 Championship overall (won regular-season crowns in 1998 and 1999).
- A&M advanced to the Super Regional round for the third time since the format began in 1999.
- The Aggies had a 14-game winning streak, the longest since A&M won 15 straight in 1995.
- The A&M offense averaged 6.94 runs per game while the pitching staff surrendered just 4.73 per contest.
- The Aggies stole 151 bases, setting a new A&M and Big 12 single-season record.
2007 HONORS
- All-Big 12
- First-Team DH (Rivals.com)
- Second-team DH (Baseball America Magazine)
- Third-team 3B (National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association)
- Third-team 3B (Collegiate Baseball Newspaper)
KYLE NICHOLSON
- Second-team RHP (Rivals.com)
- Second-team RHP (Collegiate Baseball Newspaper)
- Third-team RHP (National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association)
- Third-team RHP (American Baseball Coaches Association)
BRANDON HICKS
- Third-team SS (Baseball America Magazine)
SCOTT MIGL
- Freshman All-American (Collegiate Baseball Newspaper)
DH - Luke Anders (first-team)
UTL - Blake Stouffer (first-team)
P - Kyle Nicholson (first-team)
2B - Parker Dalton (second-team)
SS - Brandon Hicks (second-team)
P - David Newmann (honorable mention)
OF - Ben Feltner (honorable mention)
C - Craig Stinson (honorable mention)
** Newmann and Hicks were named Big 12 Co-Newcomers of the Year.
All-American
BLAKE STOUFFER