Aggies' baseball recruiting class in Top 10

By: Brad Cox

Posted: 10/14/08

The Texas A&M baseball team's 2008 recruiting class was ranked No. 6 nationally by Baseball America last week.

The back-to-back Big 12 champion added 14 members - eight freshmen and six transfers. It lost seven seniors, including All-Americans Jose Duran and Blake Stouffer, from the 46-19 2008 club that played in the Rice Super Regional.

"This honor is a credit to the tireless work put in by [assistant coaches] Matt [Deggs] and Jeremy [Talbot]," Head Coach Rob Childress told AggieAthletics.com. "They put in countless hours both on and off campus trying to find guys that not only are great players that fit our style of baseball, but are great people, too."

The Aggies added three infielders with Scott Arthur and Adam Smith from Spring, Texas, and Zack Luther from Laguna Niguel, Calif. In the outfield, they added Randall Thorpe from Grapevine, Texas. They added Denny Clement from Bartlesville, Okla., Ross Hales from Baytown, Texas, Ross Stripling from Southlake, Texas, and Estevan Uriegas from Roud Rock, Texas, to the pitching staff.

The transfers were Nick Anders, brother of A&M first baseman Luke Anders, from Temple College, Joe Patterson from Seminole College, Brett Parsons from Navarro College, Dylan Petrich from Butler Community College, Tyler Dyer from San Jacinto College and Chad Sherman from Panola College.

The Aggies are returning 15 lettermen from the 2008 Big 12 regular season championship team and will finish fall workouts with the Fall World Series that begins Oct. 22 at Olsen Field.

"The recognition is nice, but the bottom line is it doesn't automatically equal a win on the field," Childress said. "We have been working hard every day to get better and to reach our goal of being the last team standing in Omaha."

America's 2008 recruiting class rankings:
1. Arizona State
2. Vanderbilt
3. Georgia
4. Kentucky
5. Florida
6. Texas A&M
7. UCLA
8. Arkansas
9. Texas Christian
10. Oregon
11. Mississippi
12. Texas
13. Clemson
14. Virginia
15. Cal State -Fullerton
16. Wichita State
17. Fresno State
18. Stanford
19. Oklahoma State
20. Louisville
21. Pepperdine
22. Southern California
23. North Carolina State
24. Florida State
25. Duke