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HOUSTON–Texas A&M showed admirable resilience tonight in the final game of the Houston College Classic. The Aggies trailed 3-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth but battled back for a 5-3 win. The big blow was a tie-breaking two-run homer by senior center fielder Kyle Colligan in the sixth inning. Houston bullpen ace Chase Dempsay entered the game to face Colligan with a runner aboard, and Colligan turned on Dempsay’s first pitch–an 86 mph fastball over the inside corner–and launched a towering shot to left field.

Houston made things interesting in the ninth, loading the bases against A&M closer Travis Starling. But Starling escaped, getting Blake Kelso to line to shortstop to end the game.

I’ll have a few more thoughts on the Houston College Classic in Three Strikes tomorrow, but here’s a quick look at how some of the pitchers in today’s finale looked:

• Freshman lefthander Ross Hales is the real deal for Texas A&M. Hales showed a lively 87-91 mph fastball, a sharp 73-74 curve and an excellent 79 mph changeup with good arm speed in his 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.

• Starling’s fastball sat in the 85-87 range, but his 81-84 mph spike curveball was characteristically devastating.

• Dempsay worked in the 86-89 range with a lively fastball from a deceptive three-quarters slot. He also mixed in a 73-75 mph breaking ball and a 77-78 changeup.

• Houston is young but features plenty of quality arms. Starter Frank Corolla ran his fastball up to 91 today and complemented it with a good 79-80 slider. And the Cougars’ final reliever of the day, lefthander Donnie Joseph, sat at 93 mph and flashed an excellent 82-83 mph changeup. He struck out two in his perfect inning of relief, one using a fastball and one with a change.

You guys can talk about A&M all you want. However, it’s Texas that’s 9-0. It’s the Longhorns who’ve given up a total of 10 runs and committed only 4 errors in 9 games so far this season. I assume that the Longhorns will be ranked number one or two in tomorrow’s Baseball America poll. They should pass both A&M and North Carolina based on results over the past week. Ruffin, Jungmann, Green, Workman, Dicharry, and Wood — are you kidding me?!? I hope that someone from Baseball America intends to visit the newly renovated UFCU Disch-Falk Field for a weekend series at some point this season. That person could be watching the best college pitching staff in the nation in 2009. Hook ‘em Horns!

Posted by Jim Fletcher | March 2, 2009 at 12:15 am | Shortcut

Jim, you’re hilarious. Loosen up your briefs a bit and take a deep breath. Texas would get a little more coverage if Deloss and Augie didn’t schedule University of Illinois-Commuter School and Our Lady of Plastic Spatula. Let’s see what you do in Cali and against Mizzou before we just hand you the NC trophy. Go Owls!

Posted by Wooderson | March 2, 2009 at 4:02 am | Shortcut

Illinois-Chicago was a tournament team last year after winning the Horizon league. No shame in starting the year off with against a club like that, Wooderson. Your Owls will get their chance at Texas. Twice.

However, Jim, tap the brakes a bit. Texas pitching has been out-freaking-standing, no question. And what’s even more impressive to me than the 1.15 staff ERA and the 10 runs in 9 games is that the 9 pitchers Texas has used consist of 4 freshmen, 4 sophomores, and only 1 senior. And not one of those sophomores is draft eligible, so you know what that means for next season.

The defense has also been significantly better than last season. But the offense has struggled some against really good pitchers (like Penn State’s TJ Macy on Saturday). Let’s wait and see how the Horns do in their 3-gamer against Stanford this weekend before we start making reservations in Omaha.

Posted by Casey | March 2, 2009 at 10:04 am | Shortcut

…and then another tough test for the Longhorns this coming weekend against the 2-6 Stanford Cardinal who just got blown out by St. Mary’s. Beat someone relivant – then talk. That said, that pitching staff is awesome.

Posted by Dan Mattheis | March 2, 2009 at 10:08 am | Shortcut

Illinois-Chicago and Penn State may not exactly be LSU and Rice but they are hardly doormats.

Having said that Stanford and Missouri are starting pretty miserably so far. I do not think we will really know how much a fluke that 1.15 ERA through 9 games is.

But maybe Rice should be the one handed the NC trophy, Childress already dubbed the Owls the “Best Team in Texas”.

Posted by John Poole | March 2, 2009 at 10:09 am | Shortcut

Eh, Childress is still a rookie, at least as a head coach. He hasn’t learned yet to keep his mouth shut until maybe AFTER he has played more than 1 Texas team.

Posted by Casey | March 2, 2009 at 11:45 am | Shortcut

LOL at Jim. Illinois-Chicago is a decent start, but nothing compared to the level of competition at MMP this past weekend. Your precious horns might not be undefeated had they played in the HCC.

Does Texas have the best pitching staff this year? Maybe…Maybe not. A week of games, this early, is hardly proof of anything. Go troll elsewhere, jimmy boy!

Posted by Aggie Mike | March 2, 2009 at 9:20 pm | Shortcut

Mike:
It’s not the loss to Rice that looks bad on A&M’s resume. It’s the loss to Centenary at home by four runs that’s inexplicable. I believe that Texas may have the best college pitching staff in the country this year. Workman and Green are finally pitching as advertised. Adding Jungmann and Dicharry made a good staff a great one. If you want to talk UT baseball versus A&M baseball, how about 75 College World Series victories for Texas and zero (that’s right — zero) for A&M. How about 6 national championships for Texas and none for A&M. Hook ‘em Horns!

Posted by Jim Fletcher | March 4, 2009 at 9:44 pm | Shortcut