Texas A&M Baseball Survives Notre Dame Behind Pitcher Nathan Dettmer And Pringles

You can't eat just one Pringles potato chip, Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said this season when he noticed his players munching on the chips during games in the dugout.

And he recently added that you can't score just one run in an inning either or win just one game at the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

Well, the Aggies won their second CWS game Tuesday afternoon, 5-1, to eliminate Notre Dame in front of 23,618 at Charles Schwab Field. The Aggies (44-19) won their first CWS game on Sunday, eliminating rival Texas, 10-2, after losing their CWS opener, 13-8, to Oklahoma on Friday.

"Winning is great," Schlossnagle said earlier this season. "But the best part of my day is when I get to high five the team and get my Pringles when it's over."

Texas A&M advances to a 2 p.m. eastern game Wednesday on ESPN against Oklahoma (44-22) as all four Southeastern Conference West teams that reached Omaha remain.

A fifth SEC team would be in Omaha, but Notre Dame beat SEC regular season champion Tennessee in a best-of-three Super Regional in Knoxville. The Irish finished 41-18.

Action continued at the CWS on Tuesday night with Auburn (43-21) playing Arkansas (44-20) in an SEC West duel at 7 eastern in an elimination game on ESPN2.

Ole Miss (39-22) of the SEC West is 2-0 in Omaha and 7-0 in the NCAA Tournament and next plays on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against the Auburn-Arkansas winner.

Texas A&M sophomore right-hander Nathan Dettmer shut out Notre Dame through seven innings and limited the Irish to three hits for the win to go to 6-3. He watched the end of the game with a can of Pringles next to him.

It was sweet redemption for Dettmer, who took that loss to Oklahoma in the CWS opener on Friday after allowing seven earned runs on four hits and three walks through just an inning and two-thirds.

"After Friday, I felt just terrible, like I let my team down," Dettmer said. "I'm not going to lie to you. But to come back and have coach give me the ball just two games later, all that confidence just flowed through me."

Dettmer struck out six and walked no one this time around.

"Nathan was just outstanding in every sense of the word," Schlossnagle said.

Texas A&M collected 10 hits off four Notre Dame pitchers. Trevor Werner's first home run of the season to lead off the fifth put the Aggies up 4-0. Dylan Rock singled in another un in the inning for a 5-0 advantage. Texas A&M took a 3-0 lead in the third inning with two unearned runs.

Schlossnagle now finds himself in the final four of college baseball in his first year with the Aggies after inheriting a team that finished 29-27 overall and 9-21 in the SEC for last in the SEC West. A&M won its first SEC West title this season at 19-11 and reached Omaha for the first time since 2017.

"At this time last year, we didn't even have a coaching staff," he said. "A third of the team wasn't even a Texas A&M Aggie yet. We were still recruiting out of the transfer portal."

Photo courtesy of Texas A&M athletics.