Ballgame.

For the 10th time in school history, an Aggie has won the World Series. Left-handed pitcher A.J. Minter, a Texas A&M baseball alumni, helped lead the Atlanta Braves to their fourth national championship by defeating the Houston Astros in six.

Minter worked 52.1 frames on the mound during the regular season, striking out 57 opponents en route to claiming the National League pennant. His cumulative 3.78 ERA during this time helped boost Atlanta to an 88-73 season campaign record.

In the lead-up to the World Series, Minter was crucial to the Braves’ success, maintaining a perfect 0.00 ERA through 7.1 innings across five games of postseason work. He also retired 11 batters at the plate while giving up only two hits. 

Against the Astros, the lefty pitched 4.2 innings across three games. Though he allowed four earned runs during this span, two of his three appearances contributed to wins for the Braves, and his third saw Atlanta lose by four runs ⁠— one more than Minter allowed in the Game 5 matchup.

With the win, Minter concluded his fifth season and third postseason streak with the Braves. In the process, he became the fourth Aggie to win a World Series, and the first to appear in the Fall Classic since Ross Stripling in 2017.

Before claiming the trophy, Minter was forced to face off against left-handed pitcher Brooks Raley, another familiar face to maroon and white squads of years past, who acted as a central figure for the Astros bullpen. A&M was one of only two NCAA programs to have multiple former players appear in the championship series, along with Arkansas.
Seven former A&M athletes saw playing time on the professional level during the 2021 MLB season, and with four more recruited in the most recent MLB Draft, the stage seems to be set for Aggies to find their way to another championship in the near future.