Derrick Hadley takes the mound tonight as the Aggies takes on Stephen F. Austin at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. The Aggies are coming off a 3-0 start after sweeping Illinois-Chicago this weekend. Hadley was 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA last season. SFA is 0-2 after losing two games to Portland this weekend. Justin Choate, a juco transfer from Texarkana College, will be starting for them.

The game starts at 6:35 PM, and will be televised live on 12thManTV. Leave any comments or thoughts on the game in the comments. This is your live game thread.

The #5 Aggie baseball team swept University of Illinois-Chicago this weekend, winning the three games 10-0, 9-2, and 7-0 over the course of the weekend. The Aggie pitchers were dominant, giving up just 2 earned runs and 9 hits in 27 innings of work. Starters Michael Wacha (5.2 IP, 2 H, 8 Ks, 3 BB, 0 ER) and Rafael Pineda (7 IP, 1 H, 3 Ks, 0 BB, 0 ER) were especially dominant. Pineda redshirted in 2010, and didn't play last year while recoving from an injury, and went out in his first start ever as an Aggie and pitched 7 no-hit innings. After giving up a hit on the first batter of the 8th inning, he was pulled for a reliever. Ross Stripling was the only starter UIC was able to score on, getting 2 ER on Saturday, when he gave up 6 hits in 7 innings of work. Stripling allowed gave up two hits in the first, then retired the next 15 batters in a row before giving up 2 runs in the 6th inning. When your only complaint about a weekend is, "Well, we had this one bad inning where we gave up two earned runs," it was a pretty dominant weekend for your pitching staff.

The offense came alive, too, as we pounded out 32 hits and scored 26 runs, including 3 HRs, 2 by Jacob House, 1 by Brandon Wood. Matt Juengel (5-10, 5 RBI), Jacob House (6-13, 2 HR, 6 RBI), and Tyler Naquin (6-11, 2 RBI) all hit the ball well this series.

I attended the Sunday game, and will try to get some pictures up of the renovations to Olsen Field as soon as possible. The new ballpark is an absolute jewel, and when they are finished, we will have the best college baseball park in the nation.

The solid performance this weekend caused the Aggies to move up to #4 in the Collegiate Baseball poll. The Aggies are in action again today, as they face Stephen F. Austi at 6:35 PM tonight at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. Sophomore Derrick Hadley is expected to get the start for the Aggies. As always, we will have a live game thread up for the game.

After a 10-0 win in an extended opener that was played Friday night and Saturday afternoon because of a rain delay, and a 9-2 win last night, the Aggies have won the series with Illinois-Chicago, 2-0, and go for the sweep this afternoon at 12:05 PM Texas time. Rafael Pineda will make his first career start as the righthander takes the mound for the Aggies. Pineda did well during the Summer, going 4-0 with a .69 ERA, 2 saves, and 34 strikeouts in 30.1 innings in the Texas Collegiate League in 2011. He redshirted for the Aggies in 2010, and did not see any action last Spring, so this is his chance to see if he can become our Sunday starter.

The game will be televised on 12thManTV so you can watch it live. This is your game open thread, post your thoughts and opinions here.

The Aggie men's basketball team plays #3 Missouri at 1 PM today at Reed Arena. The game will be televised on ESPN. The #5 baseball team continues its opener with Illinois-Chicago at 4 PM, and then plays their second game tonight. Their opener was discontinued in a rain delay in the bottom of the 6th inning last night, with A&M leading 7-0. The softball team plays North Carolina State today at 4:30 PM.The women's basketball team hosts Oklahoma State at 7 PM tonight at Reed Arena

For those counting at home, this means we have five sporting events going on today in College Station, plenty to keep our fans busy. This is your open thread for all the games today. Post your thoughts or comments on the action today here.

This is your inaugural live game thread for the 2012 Texas Aggie baseball season. The Aggies play University of Illinois-Chicago Flames at 6:35 tonight. The game is televised live on 12thManTV.

All-American junior RHP Michael Wacha is getting his first start of the season. This is our first chance to see Wacha, Tyler Naquin, Krey Bratsen, and the Aggies take the field this year. This is your live game thread, post your thoughts on play on the field and the game here.

BEAT THE HELL OUTTA UIC!!!

The #5 Texas Aggie baseball team will open their season today at 6:35 PM against Illinois-Chicago at the newly renovated Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. Righthander Michael Wacha is expected to start for A&M against Joey Begel of UIC. Ross Stripling is expected to start Saturday, and Rafael Pineda is projected to start Sunday. The Aggies are coming off a season where they won the Big 12 regular season championship in a tie with texas, won the conference tournament, and advanced to the College World Series. With 16 letterwinners returning, including three All-Americans, there are high expectations for this season for A&M. Winning games against non-conference teams like Illinois-Chicago is one of those expectations.

For a preview of what A&M returns this season, go to my season preview. We also did a preview of Illinois-Chicago earlier this week. You'll be able to watch the game live on 12thManTV tonight. We'll have a live game thread up later today, too.

It's baseball season, though, and time to cheer the Aggies on to another great year.

The #6 Aggie baseball team opens the 2012 baseball season with a series against the University of Illinois - Chicago Flames this coming Friday at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. UIC was 28-26 last season, and 16-7 in the Horizon League, where they tied with Wright State for the conference championship. UIC is picked to finish second in the Horizon League this season, and returns 19 letterwinners off of last year's team.

UIC returns pitchers Matt Heaslip (85.2 IP, 5.78 ERA), Matt Salemi (72 IP, 3.00 ERA), Joey Begel (4-3, 81.1 IP, 4.98 ERA), Charlie Weinberg (6-5, 54 IP, 5.17 ERA), and Collin Wyer (3-1, 40.2 IP, 3.32 ERA). My guess is we'll see either Weinberg start on Friday, with Begel starting Saturday, and Heaslip. Salemi, or possibly one of the freshmen pitchers on Sunday.

Offensively, the Flames are led by junior outfielder Nick Addison, who hit .272 with 4 HRs and 28 RBIs last season, and Alex De LaRosa, a fourth-year utilityman who hit .268 with 7 doubles and 28 RBIs last season. Junior Ryan Shober led the team in stolen bases last season with 15 on 17 attempts.

UIC was 15-8 at home, 12-14 on the road last season, so they're a solid team that struggles a little on the road. They look like a perfect team to play as we open Olsen Field after the renovations, and begin the 2012 season.

• The Aggie softball team started the season yesterday, dropping their opening game in the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, AZ, 3-2, to BYU. The Aggies started out slow, with an error, a single, and a home run leading to three quick runs for the Cougars in the first inning. The Aggies fought back, scoring runs in the 4th inning off a Sydney Shannon home run, and an unearned run in the fifth inning, but it wasn't enough to overcome their early game jitters, as the Cougars made it stand up for a 3-2 win. In the second game of the day, against the Stanford Cardinal, a 4-run second inning (highlighted by a 3-run homer by Natalie Villareal), and timley scoring of 2 runs in the 4th, a run in the 5th, 2 runs in the 6th, and a run in the 7th helped us win a slugfest, 10-9. Stanford is a solid team and ranked #9 in the nation, so it was a solid win for us. We play #8 Arizona today and San Jose State later tonight, before ending the tournament with an early morning game against Northwestern tomorrow.
  
• The men's basketball team is lost a really ugly one today against Iowa State. The only solace I could take in that loss is that they didn't double our score. When you're at that point, the season is already lost. I'm not sure if our team even wants to play in the postseason at this point, and wonder if a postseason appearance in the NIT would do more harm than good.
• We are only six days away from opening day for Aggie Baseball, with our #6-ranked team set to open the new Blue Bell Park at Olsen Field this coming Friday against Illinois-Chicago. The game will be streaming over the Internet on 12thManTV.
  
• I'm still non-lussed at the stupidity of Dollar Bill to have us open the 2012 football season on the road, but I have my reservations set for Shreveport. Since Independence Stadium has a capacity of 63,000, it will be interesting to see how ticket availability for this game will work. Given that it is the opening game for both teams and an opening game for football season in a city where there are plenty of college football fans, I expect the game to sellout rather quickly.