OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Texas A&M baseball team is not dwelling on the past - at least not the negative parts.
After losing five of their final six conference games of the regular season, the Aggies want to put the Texas and Oklahoma series behind them as they start the Big 12 Championship Tournament against Missouri today in Oklahoma City. "Last weekend didn't go our way," said A&M sophomore second baseman Brodie Greene, "It's over with and a new season starts tomorrow. We need to build on it from there. Our goal is to win this tournament and get a championship ring."
Greene, who was named First Team All-Big 12 second baseman Tuesday, is looking a bit further back in history for some inspiration.
When he was a freshman in 2007, Texas swept the Aggies to end the season. With a 13-13 conference record and a 5th place regular season finish, A&M recovered in the tournament to beat the Longhorns en route to the tournament title and a NCAA Regional Tournament host.
"We're going to look to be doing that Friday and just get after them," said Greene, whose team will play Oklahoma for the fourth time this season Friday. "Could be fourth time is a charm."
The conference tournament features eight of the 10 teams that field a baseball program in the Big 12. The first round is a round robin format of two brackets of four teams each. The winner of each bracket will play in a championship game Sunday. The winner of the tournament earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
No. 6-seeded A&M will play No. 3-seeded Missouri today, No. 2-seeded Oklahoma on Friday and No. 7-seed Texas Tech on Saturday.
In the opposite bracket is regular season title winners Texas, No. 5-seeded Kansas, No. 4-seeded Kansas State and No. 8-seeded Baylor.
"The regular season is over and this is what they've been waiting for since last June," said Aggie Head Coach Rob Childress about his team. "I'm excited to see how we respond to this past weekend. This team is ready to be in the postseason."
A&M was 2-7 against the three teams in its bracket during the regular season. The team played all three series on the road. Missouri finished 2009 with a 32-23 overall record and was 16-11 in conference play.
"How you respond to failure is going to ultimately determine your success," Childress said. "It's something we've dealt with on and off all year long."
A&M went from National Top 8 seed talks before the Texas series to fighting for a regional host this weekend at the Bricktown Ballpark. The Aggies are ranked in the Top 25 in ratings percentage index by Boyd's World and hosted the previous two seasons.
"It really depends on what happens around the country," Childress said about hosting prospects. "Our season has been a grind. We've had to fight for everything we've gotten. No one has handed us anything. I don't expect this tournament to be any different."
Once ranked No. 1 in the nation by Baseball America, the Aggies will try to put how they finished the season to the back of their minds for possibly the three most important games of their season.
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