COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - As Texas A&M starter Ryan Prager made his way to the dugout after the final out of the sixth inning, he was showered with praise from the upper deck of Blue Bell Park as fans chanted his name.

With 108 pitches fired from his left arm and the Aggies holding a 6-2 lead, all signs pointed to a memorable night for the Aggie ace. After the 81st-overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft put off moving on to the next level of baseball in order to return to Aggieland for one more season, he would be rewarded with a win and a proper send off in what should be his final outing at Blue Bell Park.

And yet, as has been the case so many time this season, the Aggie bats and bullpen failed their starting pitching in what turned out to be an embarrassing 9-6 loss to a Missouri team that notched its first win in Southeastern Conference play Friday against the Aggies. The Tigers (14-35, 1-24) had whiffed at winning 24 times previously and had not held a lead in the ninth inning in any conference game this season.

“It always sucks losing the game, no matter what, but yeah, that hurts a little bit more,” centerfielder Jace LaViolette said of giving away Prager’s win. “I bet it hurts a little bit more for him, but now we can just use this as fire and hopefully get back on the right side of things.”

The Aggies (27-21, 10-15) jumped out to an early 6-1 lead, thanks to four home runs in the first three innings, including two from LaViolette. However, complacency set into the Aggies’ approach.

Too often this season, the Aggies have been solely reliant on the long ball to generate offense. Case-in-point was A&M’s series loss to Texas where the Aggies hit just one home run in the three losses.

Friday, against a pitching staff that entered the series with the worst ERA in the SEC, everyone in the lineup thought they’d get their chance to touch them all. However, as the air cooled in the later innings and the wind shifted to the north, the Aggies’ upper-cut, big hacks fell short on the warning track.

“You can’t hit lazy fly balls, especially on the first pitch,” Earley said. “It just does’t play. That was the recipe to get beat and what I told them before the game.”

When asked what A&M can do differently Saturday to level out swings, LaViolette offered a small chuckle to the question.

“Get on top of the ball, I guess,” he said.

The obvious source of the loss came from A&M’s bullpen and defensive lapses. The Tigers begin the inning with a single, a walk and a hit batter by reliever Weston Moss that loaded the bases. A fluky chopper that bounced over Kaiden Wilson’s head on the mound brought in a run, followed by a two-RBI double by Missouri’s Kaden Peer that tied the game. A throwing error by Kaeden Kent and a wild pitch brought home three more runs, which proved an insurmountable lead.

But, A&M’s offense was always supposed to be the strong suit of a roster that returned many key pieces from last year’s run to the College World Series finals. So, after A&M took their early lead, it was catastrophic that A&M managed just two singles and one runner in scoring position in the final six innings of the game.

In the final 18 outs of the game, A&M recorded nine fly outs and four strikeouts, all four of which were looking.

After the game, Earley called the lack of approach in the final six innings “selfish,” when describing what the Aggies need to do to right the ship Saturday.

“Not getting outside of our approach and playing nine innings of baseball and doing what we’re supposed to do and sticking with the plan,” Earley said. “When you see other guys hitting homers and doing stuff, they got to do that because they stuck with the plan and not being selfish and sticking with what we’re supposed to do for an entire game, not just when we score and get a lead and play like it’s over, because it’s never over.”

A&M desperately needed a sweep in this series to have a level of comfort that the NCAA Tournament is in their future as the regular season draws to a close. It wasn’t an impossible ask. The Tigers entered the series ranked No. 155 in RPI, by far the lowest-ranked conference opponent of the season. New Mexico State and Elon were the only two teams the Aggies faced for weekend series this year ranked lower. Now, Friday’s loss is the worst of the season for the Aggies, which — put into terms more commonly used for basketball — is A&M’s only Quadrant IV loss of the season. The Tigers moved up eight spots with the win to No. 147.

The Aggies, however, dropped ten spots with the one loss to No. 45. A&M needs to get sub-30 to have a 100% chance of making the postseason, which now should require a series win at RPI No. 1 Georgia to close out the season next week.

“We didn’t play good baseball,” Earley said. “We kicked it. We haven’t played like that in a long time. It’s unfortunate it happened right now. Our backs have been against the wall all year and they’re really up against it now.”

However, before even considering what postseason fate this Aggie baseball team deserves, it was obvious that a win should have been the perfect ending to a standout home career at A&M and a fantastic 6-inning, 7-hit, 3-run and 7-strikeout performance. Though requested after Friday’s game, Prager declined to talk, according to A&M athletic communications. Frankly, this is one instance I don’t blame his absence.

He deserved better.

KBTX senior Texas A&M sportswriter Travis L. Brown can be reached by email at [email protected].