2012 NCAA Baseball Tournament, Texas A&M Regional: Early Analysis and Prediction

Texas A&M hosts a first-round regional for the second year in a row in College Station this weekend when they host TCU, Ole Miss, and Dayton. This is A&M's sixth consecutive appearance in the tournament, while Dayton is playing for the first time in school history. The winner of the double elimination round will go on to face the winner of the Los Angeles regional hosted by UCLA.

Here is the schedule for this weekend's games:

Friday, June 1
Game 1: No. 3 Ole Miss (35-24) vs. No. 2 TCU (36-19) (ESPN3, 1:35 p.m.)
Game 2: No. 4 Dayton (31-28) vs. No. 1 Texas A&M (42-16)* (ESPN3, 7:35 p.m.)

Saturday, June 2
Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser (ESPN3, 1:35 p.m.)
Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner (ESPN3, 7:35 p.m.)

Sunday, June 3
Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser (ESPN3, 1:35 p.m.)
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner (ESPN3, 7:35 p.m.)

Monday, June 4
Game 7: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser (ESPN3, 7:35 p.m.) (if necessary)

Early Analysis

The Aggies (42-16) are hoping to reclaim some of the fire they lost in the Big 12 Tournament last weekend. Before the tournament, the Aggies had won 7 in a row and 13 of 15 behind some truly dominant starting pitching. Dayton is a respectable 31-28 and won the A-10, but they are simply overmatched here. TCU (36-19) and Ole Miss (35-24) split a pair of games on opening weekend. Like A&M, the Horned Frogs were on a hot streak (12 of 14) before entering the Mountain West Tournament last weekend. They are pretty matched against an Ole Miss squad that has been pretty mediocre since conference play started and went 7-8 in the month of May.

Prediction

A&M will win the regional, but TCU probably won't make it easy. Dayton will be disposed of quickly, and Ole Miss has shown little ability to show up to play against good competition in the last six weeks.