This year’s trip to the postseason is the first under second-year head coach Michael Earley.
MEREDITH SEAVER, THE EAGLE
The Texas A&M baseball team’s fall exhibition against Rice has been moved back a week to next Friday due to expected inclement weather this Friday, A&M head baseball coach Michael Earley said Thursday.
The exhibition will still be played at Blue Bell Park with first pitch set for 6 p.m.
“I play weatherman during the season, so this is an early start on it,” Earley joked. “So, easy to decision to make. Talked to [Rice] coach [David] Pierce, so we’ll just kick it off next Friday.”
A&M is also scheduled to host an exhibition against McNeese on Oct. 16.
Earley said he believes there are enough opportunities for offseason exhibitions in college baseball right now and that the sport has chosen to play two instead of four.
“Because of the size of our roster, our guys actually play less when we play a scrimmage,” Earley said. “When we play against each other, we get more opportunities for at-bats, innings. With [an exhibition], the [good] part is getting in front of our crowd, the heart rate, it is different for a lot of these guys.”
While college baseball rosters are down to 34 players in wake of roster limits as part of last year’s House v. NCAA settlement, Earley said he thinks four exhibitions should be the minimum.
“The issue with the 34-man roster, I’m getting years down the road, it’s not the games, it’s practice,” Earley said. “It’s going to be hard to put two teams, virtually impossible, unless you recruit perfectly to match it up, which can be done. That’ll be the difficult part. So, I think four would be the minimum, and four might be appropriate. To be honest, I haven’t dove into it too much yet, because we don’t have to.”