Texas A&M (27-22, 10-16 SEC) is likely out of NCCA Tournament contention after Saturday's series loss to last-place Missouri, defeating the Aggies 4-1 on Saturday afternoon, less than 24 hours after winning 9-6 on Friday night. On paper, this is one of the worst series losses in program history, as the Tigers entered Friday 0-24 in conference play.

While the lack of offense and poor performance on the mound led to Friday's loss, Texas A&M's two hits on Saturday directly led to the loss, as veteran pitcher Brad Rudis, who entered the game for Justin Lamkin after the weather delay struck out seven batters, and gave the Aggies a chance to get back in it. However, outside of scoring their one run off an error in the bottom of the ninth, It felt like the Aggies were virtually shut out, at home, no less.

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Amid his first season at the helm, Michael Earley's future with the program was bleak even before this weekend, but due to the Aggies' series wins over Tennessee, Arkansas, and LSU, his job looked somewhat safe, especially if Texas A&M earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. While he will be a hot topic this week, the man deserves a chance to lead to Aggies to 13 or 14 conference wins to still have a shot at the postseason.

After the game, Earley spoke to the local media about the loss, giving credit to Missouri's much-maligned pitching staff.

"Yeah, I mean, the starter was really good. I mean, they did a good job, and I don't want to discredit them" Earley stated. "I just didn't think we performed right, and maybe it's what they were doing. I think it's more of what we were doing, but you know, credit them for keeping us off balance. Not a good day offensively."

In terms of what went wrong offensively, Earley stated that all nine Aggie batters struggled with chasing pitches, resulting in a lack of rhythm.

"Yeah, just chasing too many pitches, period" Earley stated. "That was 100% the issue. Sometimes a chase gets looked at in strike three, right? But sometimes, it's a chase in ten or one that completely changes the count or two. We did alot of that tonight, and that is not conducive to success."

Texas A&M will host Missouri for the series finale on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. CT. The game will stream on SEC Network+.

This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Texas A&M HC Michael Earley speaks after series loss to Missouri