Sept. 17, 2010
The drive for a Big 12 Championship and fifth consecutive NCAA tournament berth under head coach Rob Childress begins on Monday for the Texas A&M baseball team when it kicks off its fall practices at 3 p.m. on Olsen Field.
The Aggies are coming off a 43-21-1 season during which they captured the Big 12 Championship at the league's postseason tournament and reached the regional championship game of the NCAA Coral Gables Regional.
As has become tradition under Childress, the Aggies will spend the fall competing internally for the Omaha Cup which has become a staple of the Texas A&M baseball culture. The event features the Aggies being split into different teams and competing against one another both on and off the field in order to sharpen the competitive nature and chemistry of the squad as well as prepare it for the ultimate goal of reaching the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Returners and a talented class of newcomers will be divided into the Farmers, Plowboys and Roughnecks. Practices and scrimmages at Olsen Field during the fall are open to the public.
Among the returning talent from last season's squad are 19 letterwinners including four 2010 All-Big 12 honorees in catcher Kevin Gonzalez, utility man Matt Juengel and pitchers John Stilson and Michael Wacha.
For the third straight season in 2010, Gonzalez was a tremendous force for Texas A&M behind the plate, starting 51 games and catching one of the country's best pitching staffs. His .318 average ranked fourth on the team, while his nine home runs was also fourth and his 38 RBI were fifth. Defensively, Gonzalez committed just three errors all year (.994 fielding percentage) while throwing out 16 would-be base stealers and picking off four more runners.
In his first season in Aggieland, Juengel appeared in 54 games, ranking second on the team with a .359 batting average. The sophomore utility man started at four different positions on the season and was tops on the team and sixth in the league with a .380 average in conference games.
Wacha, who hails from Texarkana, featured a 2.90 ERA, a 9-2 record and 97 strikeouts in a team-high 105.2 innings during the 2010 campaign. He saw action both as a starter and out of the bullpen.
In recognition of his record-setting sophomore campaign, Stilson was named to the Louisville Slugger NCAA Division I All-America Team along with teammate Barret Loux. Additionally, he became the sixth Aggie to win the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year award, joining Craig Kuzmic (1998), Scott Beerer (2003), David Newmann (2007), Brandon Hicks (2007) and Jose Duran (2008).
The sophomore from Texarkana finished the year with a 9-1 record, a sparkling 0.80 ERA and a team-best 10 saves. In just over 79 innings of work, Stilson fanned 114 hitters and held opponents to a .181 average. His ERA ranks as the lowest in school history for a single season, topping the previous mark of 0.86 set by Doug Rau during the 1970 season.