COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — The Texas Aggie baseball team was able to get out on the field in Omaha Thursday afternoon as they get ready to start their College World Series run Saturday evening.
While the bright lights and college baseball’s biggest stage can be a lot to take in – the Aggies are keeping their ‘Opening Day, Everyday’ mentality.
“Go out there, might be a new field, big field, big stage,” freshman third baseman Gavin Grahovac said. “But just got to go out there and play our game and have fun.”
“Obviously, it's really cool to be here,” sophomore outfielder Jace LaViolette said. “You just have to treat it like we treated, as he said, ‘opening day, right?’ We have to realize that we got here because we had a standard, and we got here because we had things that we believe in, and we can't start going away from those things just because we're on a bigger stage or a bigger field or you perceive it to be bigger. We have to put it in perspective and realize that it's still baseball. It's still a game. We just have to play our best.”
The Aggies will take the field Saturday without star outfielder Braden Montgomery after he suffered a season ending ankle injury during Game 1 of Super Regionals – but the team is confident with their depth off the bench, knowing anyone can step up.
“He'll continue to be a great teammate as we continue to go through this journey,” Grahovac said. “Every guy has to step up now. So whoever is coming off the bench is going to play. Like you saw the other day, Kaeden Kent, huge swing, huge plays. We're going to have a great time, and Braden is going to be here with us.”
Chris Cortez, Ryan Prager, Brad Rudis, and Ryan Targac are the first four players in program history to come to two College World Series during their careers. Not only does it speak to the consistency of what head coach Jim Schlossnagle is trying to build in Aggieland, but important that there’s always players in the clubhouse who have this kind of postseason experience.
“Yeah, it means a lot,” Schlossnagle said. “The more often you go, the more used to being here that a team is, and you have somebody other than a coach that can talk to you about their experience, whether it be on or off the field. Between Prager and Cortez and Rudis, I guess, Targac would be the other one, it's awesome have that come from players instead of -- it's like hearing from your dad all the time. They hear from me all the time, but it's better when it comes from a player. Hopefully we can continue that to where we always have that kind of experience on our club.”
The College World Series kicks off Friday with North Carolina and Virginia at 1pm followed by Tennessee and Florida State at 6pm. The Aggies will play the second game of the day on Saturday – that one is also slated for 6pm.