1989 Texas A&M University Aggies, 58-7 (17-4 Southwest Conference), SWC Tournament Champions, NCAA Regional (2nd)

Many college baseball buffs, even some who are not Aggies, believe that the 1989 A&M squad might be the best college baseball team that did not win the College World Series.  The team started the season 13-0 and reached the #1 spot in the polls by Feb. 27th.  By April 7, a day on which SS Chuck Knoblauch homered and doubled to lead the Ags to a 9-2 Southwest Conference victory over Rice, their record had reached 36-1, 7-0 in the SWC.   They lost only 5 games in the regular season, easily capturing the SWC tournament against rivals Texas and Arkansas (both of whom went on to play in the CWS that season).   Led by stars Knoblauch (.364, 36 SB) and 3B John Byington (.442, 15 HR in 199 AB), the Aggies hit .340 as a team and stole 133 bases.  Senior Keith Langston (12-1, 3.16) anchored the rotation while Scott Centala (5-1, 10 SV, 73 SO in 62 IP) was one of the nation's top relievers.  Although 9 players from this team were drafted by  MLB the following year, Chuck Knoblauch was the only member of the team to make it in the majors, winning the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1991 for the World Series champion Minnesota Twins.  

Aggie SS Chuck Knoblauch

The Aggies were ranked #1 in the country heading into the regionals, which they hosted at their own Olsen Field for the first time in school history.   The squad proceeds to crush the opposition; they open the tournament by defeating Jackson State 23-2, follow that up with a 25-4 win over BYU and then a 17-5 win over South Alabama to advance to the title game with a season record of 58-5.   Meanwhile, LSU had battled their way through the losers bracket to face the Aggies, who needed just one win on a 100-degree Sunday in late May in College Station to advance to the College World Series.  Unfortunately for the Ags, the LSU Tigers pitching staff that season boasted no fewer than six pitchers who would go on to have successful major league careers: Ben McDonald, Paul Byrd, Russ Springer, Chad Ogea, Curtis Leskanic, and John O'Donoghue.  LSU's staff ace McDonald, who had won their regional opener against Nevada-Las Vegas, was named the starter for regional final.  McDonald worked the first seven innings in the 13-5 win to hold off the Aggies, but instead of putting McDonald on the bench, LSU Coach Skip Bertman made the double switch to put McDonald in left field just in case he was needed for a late-inning out. The LSU win necessitated a second game of a double-header to determine the regional championship. Texas A&M jumped out to an early 4-1 lead behind three RBIs by Mike Easley, but then LSU reliever Leskanic came in and shut down the Aggie bats.  LSU cut the lead to one run on a two-run homer by Wes Grisham in the fifth and tied the game in the ninth with a RBI single by Pete Bush, as Centala couldn't close out the save.  In the top of the 11th, seldom used pinch hitter Pat Garrity's 2-out double pushed a run across for LSU, and in the bottom of the 11th with a runner on first base, McDonald was summoned once again to close down the game, which he did successfully.   A win and a save on the same day earned McDonald the Most Outstanding Player honor for the regional, and the Aggies were left wondering about what might have been.  SWC also-ran Texas ultimately faced Wichita State in the CWS championship, won by the Shockers.  However, in a situation not seen before or since, the Aggies were voted as the #2 team in the country in the final Baseball America poll, despite not reaching the CWS.  Even with the two Sunday losses to LSU, their .892 winning percentage is the 6th best of all time in college baseball.