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Updated 6:53 AM on Monday, May 28, 2007

A&M captures title

Aggies pound Baylor and win their first Big 12 Tournament crown

By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY - Going into the Big 12 Tournament, Texas A&M baseball coach Rob Childress said 2007 had just been a feel-good season so far.

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Buy this photo AP Photo Texas A&M's Brandon Hicks, second from right, gets high fives from his teammates as he returns to the dugout after scoring in the second inning against Baylor in the championship game of the Big 12 baseball tournament in Oklahoma City, Sunday, May 27, 2007.

That feeling got much better after the Aggies rolled to a 14-6 victory over the Baylor Bears to win their first Big 12 Tournament championship.

"We told our team all year long we haven't done anything yet," Childress said the day before the tournament opened. "We have 40-plus wins and it's a feel-good year, but we haven't won anything yet. I want to win a championship. I want to win a ring."

Childress and the Aggies got what they wanted on Sunday at the Bricktown Ballpark after coming back from losing the first game of the tournament and winning the title.

"It's important because I don't know if there is a guy in the clubhouse, maybe I'm wrong, that has a championship ring," Childress said "I was at Nebraska for eight years and I've got five of them, and you start to take it for granted. I told our players they'll get a ring for winning a conference championship and how bad they wanted it is up to them."

Senior catcher Craig Stinson proved what it meant to him as he completed a nearly flawless week by going 4 for six in the final, capping an 11-for-19 tournament that earned him MVP honors. He finished the week with a home run and nine RBI.

"It felt really, really good, especially after the last couple of years not coming here, not making a regional and struggling," Stinson said. "It feels good to come up here and take the title back to College Station."

While shortstop Brandon Hicks was throwing to first baseman Blake Stouffer for the final out, the rest of the Aggies were hopping the dugout fence, rushing from the bullpen or sprinting from their position toward the mound, where the traditional dogpile took place.

"As a coach I've got a couple of favorite things, things that truly make me enjoy what I do," Childress said. "No. 1, when you've won a championship, sitting in the dugout and actually sitting back and watching your team dogpile.

"I enjoy that more than anything, whether it's winning a game to go to Omaha or winning a Big 12 championship," Childress said. "I sit back, don't move, and watch our players and their excitement and their happiness."

For the Aggies (44-16), it was their second major celebration of the day. During the second inning, it was announced over the public address system that A&M would be hosting an NCAA regional that will begin on Friday.

"I was standing on third base when they announced it over the PA, standing there with coach [Matt] Deggs, and we both had goose bumps," Stouffer said. "Knowing where this program has been the last two years, then to hear that kind of news, that we're hosting, was awesome."

The Aggies had failed to make the Big 12 or NCAA tournaments the past two years.

On Sunday that was forgotten, as the Aggies came out swinging and went up 5-0 early. They didn't allow the Bears to get closer than two runs the rest of the way.

Texas A&M made Baylor starter Wade Mackey (4-3) pay for issuing two first-inning walks with two two-out RBI singles.

Stinson drove in a run for the fourth straight game with a single to center that brought home Ben Feltner. Luke Anders then got his first RBI of the tournament with liner to left, scoring Stouffer.

The Aggies threatened to blow away the Bears in the second. Brian Ruggiano doubled and later scored on a double steal.

Baylor catcher Matt Czimskey threw down to Beamer Weems at second, who threw back high and wide to Czimskey, allowing Ruggiano to scoot past with a run.

"To me the early part of the game was about two throws. We had Feltner picked off over there and bounced the throw and then didn't throw the guy out at the plate on the double steal," Baylor coach Steve Smith said. "We didn't play perfectly, obviously, but I'd be taking a whole lot away from A&M if I led you to believe that they won the game because we didn't play well."

Hicks followed with a two-out single that scored Dane Carter with the fourth run, and Stouffer tripled home Hicks to make it 5-0.

"I think today was our day. From the first moment on they [the Bears] were on their heels in every area," Childress said. "Coach Deggs did an incredible job of running the offense, keeping pressure on them from the start, and our players executed."

A&M set a championship-game record with 20 hits, many of them in the seventh when Hicks, Stouffer and Stinson each singled to drive in a run and move a runner from first to third.

The Aggies also scored on a ground ball by Anders and went up 12-5.

"We left no doubt on the field," said Stouffer, who woke up Sunday unsure who the Aggies would be playing because Baylor didn't get the last out against Oklahoma the night before until 12:45 a.m. "We ran the bases extremely well, took extra bases when we could, had a good approach at the plate and pitched it well. We did it all today."

A&M added two insurance runs in the eighth, with Dane Carter driving home Parker Dalton and Stouffer plating Carter.

Dalton, a .376 hitter who had been struggling of late, went 3 for 4 and was one of six players to collect multiple hits.

Stinson and Hicks each had four base hits, while Carter, Ruggiano and Stouffer two. For Stinson it was his 10th mulitple-hit game in his last 12 starts.

Baylor's first two runs came on a 415-foot triple by No. 9 hitter Paul Miles. Dustin Dickerson doubled and Shave Hansen walked in front of Miles.

The three-run fifth that chased A&M starter Scott Migl opened with a solo homer by Shaver Hansen, his second of the tournament.

Five batters later, with the Bears (34-25) having closed the gap to 7-5, Childress turned the ball over to Gary Campfield to face Czimskey. The Baylor catcher had gone deep in each of the first three games in the tournament, but Campfield got him to pop out harmlessly to Ruggiano at third.

Campfield finished the game, going 4 1/3 innings for his second win. It was his longest outing of the season.

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NOTES - The NCAA Tournament field will be announced at 11:30 a.m. on Monday. ... A&M will play it's first regional game at 7 p.m. on Friday at Olsen Field. ... A&M erased it's own name from the record book with the 20 hits on Sunday. Texas Tech had 18 against the Aggies in the Red Raiders title win in 1998. ... A&M had not won a conference tournament since winning the Southwest Conference title in 1989. It was the Aggies' third appearance in the title game since joining the Big 12. ... The 14 runs scored by A&M matches the most surrendered by Baylor all season. ... Stinson was the lone Aggie named to the all-tournament team.