2023 Shriners College Classic Preview

For the first time this season, the Aggies are leaving the friendly confines of The Corner™®©, as they make the trek down to Minute Maid Park for the 2023 Shriners Children’s College Classic. This marks the 11th appearance for Texas A&M in this event, and the program’s first since the beforetimes* in 2019.

As usual, the Ags will match up with a slew of familiar faces, beginning with a rematch of the 2022 College Station Super Regional in game one tonight against No. 14 Louisville. Game two on Saturday will be the first of three disparate games this month against Rice. A&M will then take on the No. 24 Texas Tech Lifetime Contracts in the tournament finale on Sunday evening.

This event will be the Ags’ first real test of the season; one that they definitely need. That might sound silly, considering they lost three of four last week against Lamar and Portland. But something clicked heading into the LSU series last season, and the hope (that I have, at least) is that a step up in competition will give Schloss and his staff a chance to refocus this team.

The Aggies came into this event four years ago with concerns about a sputtering offense, having struggled against poor competition. And because time is a flat circle, here we are again. The good news is, the offense may have awoken this past Tuesday, when they drubbed HCU 23-0. That kind of output can’t be bad for the old confidence. We’ll see how well that translates this weekend.

*of course, by beforetimes, I mean the Rob Childress era

Friday vs. Louisville: Nathan Dettmer (0-0, 0.82 ERA) vs. Joey Gartrell (2-0, 0.66 ERA)
Saturday vs. Rice: Troy Wansing (0-1, 5.19 ERA) vs. TBA
Sunday vs. Tech: Chris Cortez (1-0, 5.40 ERA) vs. Taber Fast (0-0, 5.14 ERA)

Times: Friday, 7:00 pm | Saturday, 7:00 pm | Sunday, 7:00 pm
Radio: Andrew Monaco and JB Moss (YO JIBBY BIBBY!) have the call on SportsRadio 1150/93.7 The Zone
TV: AT&T SportsNet SW for Friday, AT&T SportsNet SW Alternate for Saturday and Sunday
Live Video: All games of the tournament can be streamed without a paywall at astros.com, on the official Astros Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube pages, or on the MLB app
Live Stats: tamu.statbroadcast.com (desktop); tamustats.com (mobile)