The Texas A&M baseball team is nearing the end of its annual exercise in Aggie values.
The three-month long competition for the Omaha Cup will culminate on Friday with the final game of the 2009 Fall World Series.
Every fall, the A&M squad splits into two teams to compete for the coveted Omaha Cup, named for the town where the College World Series is played.
"It's not about who can go out there and play the game necessarily as much as who can take care of their business both on the field and in the classroom," said A&M Head Coach Rob Childress.
The five-game Fall World Series was scheduled to start Monday, but a weather delay meant a Tuesday start. Games will be played on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at Olsen Field with each starting at 3 p.m.
Going into the first game, the teams were tied, in points total. The Farmers took a 75-point lead after winning Tuesday's game.
"It's not your typical fall that most schools go through in that they come together for one week and play a championship series and somebody wins and somebody losses," Childress said. "This starts from the first day of class up until the end of this week. There's been an awful lot of time and energy invested on each team's part."
The points are derived from both on-the-field production and a number of off-the-field aspects including class attendance and community service.
"It's everything the Aggies values are," Childress said. "It's taking care of your business both on the field, off the field and in the community and doing things the right way."
Childress said the excitement and competitiveness of the Fall Series usually carries into the spring season. Though A&M struggled in 2009 with a 14-13 Big 12 record, ending the Aggies' run of two conference championships, Childress said the previous season's Omaha Cup was competitive.
The Aggies lost several key players and recruits to the MLB Amateur Draft including pitcher/outfielder Brooks Raley and high school recruits Shelby Miller, Todd Glaesmann and K.C. Hobson.
"Probably about halfway through the summer, our hope was to get one of the two, either Todd Glaesmann or K.C. Hobson, but as that started going along later in the summer, we realized that we weren't going to get either of those guys," Childress said.
Childress said they anticipated what happened in response to the draft, so they were prepared for changes.
The Aggie coaching staff continued with its history of signing junior college players, signing transfers such as pitcher/short stop John Stilson and second baseman Andrew Collazo.
Childress said he is also expecting big things from former Brazos Valley Bomber player Joaquin Hinojosa, an outfielder and closer, and freshman third-base prospect Matt Juengel.
"It's something that we've always hung our hat on," Childress said. "We're going to recruit junior college position players and going to sprinkle in some high school guys here and there, and we did and try to sign high school pitching. We've had some success doing that the last four years we've been here."
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