A week ago, it looked like Texas A&M Aggies baseball was falling into the basement.

Not only had their head coach accepted the head coaching job for their arch rivals, the Texas Longhorns, but nearly every impact player from their College World Series team had entered the NCAA Transfer Portal.

However, things have now turned around in a big way.

With the hiring of new head coach Michael Earley, the Aggies had managed to retain a good portion of those players entering the portal, including Jace LaViolette, Gavin Grahovac, Ali Camarillo, Hayden Schott, and Kaeden Kent.

Now, he has done it again, with standout freshman outfielder Caden Sorrell and pitcher Justin Lamkin both announcing their intentions to stay with the program on Wednesday with a post on X.

“No place like HOME,” Sorrell said his his post with two thumbs up emojis.

Last season in his first year with the Aggies, Sorrell exploded on to the scene, hitting .275 with a .369 OBP and .555 slugging percentage in 62 games. In 214 total plate appearances and 182 at bats, Sorrell scored 44 runs with 50 hits and 43 RBI, along with 11 home runs. He also finished the year with eight doubles, three triples, and nine stolen bases to his name.

Lamkin, meanwhile, his announcement on Instagram.

In his second season with the Aggies, Lamkin went 3-3 with a 5.21 ERA in 19 games with 16 starts. He pitched 65.2 total innings and gave up 64 hits with 38 earned runs, striking out 88 of the 289 batters he faced.

The Texas A&M Aggies lost former head coach Jim Schlossnagle to their arch-rival Texas Longhorns last week, in a move that shocked Aggie fans everywhere.

After all, Schlossnagle had just berated the media the evening before bolting for Austin for simply asking questions about his connection to the job. Nonetheless, Schlossnagle left, leaving an extremely sour taste in the mouths of Aggies everywhere.

And following the swift hiring of Michael Earley as Schlossnagle’s replacement, Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp took the opportunity to take a shot at the former coach during Earley’s introductory press conference.

“Considering the shady way this all happened & the final result, A&M got the far better part of this deal,” Sharp told Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle. “A coach loyal to his players & school is worth his weight in gold. Now we’ve got that coach.”

However, Sharp wasn’t the only person in the Aggies organization who was thrown off by Schlossnagle’s actions.

Following his exit to the Longhorns, it was reported by Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball that a deal had been done between Schlossnagle and Texas before the start of the postseason.

Texas A&M Athletic Director Trev Alberts has now seemingly backed up those reports, telling Zwerneman that Schlossnagle was extremely avoidant in the weeks leading up to his exit.

Per Alberts, Schlossnagle avoided a meeting scheduled regarding the renovation of Blue Bell Park – allegedly a major sticking point for the coach – and canceled one-on-one meetings with the AD.

“We hosted a regional, and after the regional, I said, ‘Can we meet?’ ” Alberts said to Zwerneman. “We scheduled a meeting for Monday (June 3), and he canceled. We scheduled a meeting for that Tuesday, and he canceled… That Wednesday I went and sat … (Schlossnagle’s) son was in his office, and so I sat in (assistant coach) Nolan Cain’s office. I talked for 40 minutes with Nolan Cain until he came.”

At the end of the day, what’s done is done. Schlossnagle has departed College Station, and Earley is now leading the charge.

And it seems all of Aggieland is thrilled with the outcome.

It is easy to feel discouraged after the mixed results in the latest STAAR data set. Last month, the Texas Education Agency released scores showing that progress has slowed and the percentage of students meeting standards declined by one percentage point in Dallas County and across the state.

While this stagnation in reading and math scores in state academic assessments signals that pandemic learning losses linger, a closer look at Dallas County school districts shows that some are defying the trend.

One such outlier is Cedar Hill ISD, and its above-average performance is worth examining. In this district, the number of students meeting state standards in fourth-grade reading and math grew by more than five percentage points year to year. In sixth grade, the number of students who met reading and math standards grew by over 10 percentage points, the Commit Partnership reported. The district has consistently improved its academic performance over the years.

What is Cedar Hill ISD doing? The answer points to a mix of practical academic strategies, consistency in school leadership, parental involvement and accountability. The old saying rings true: It takes a village. The progress is remarkable for a school district where two-thirds of the student body are economically disadvantaged.

Amber Shields, managing director from Early Matters Dallas in Commit, underscored several strategies implemented by the district of about 7,000 students. This includes early intervention for students at risk of failing a subject, professional development for a younger teacher workforce and high-quality instructional materials. The district has also enhanced how it engages with parents. Cedar Hill ISD conducts workshops to keep families informed and provide them with resources and materials for at-home support.

“This means that these students are on a path to living wage attainment. … It begins with our students meeting these important benchmarks in school,” Shields told us.

Most important, the district has had consistent leadership. Gerald Hudson in Cedar Hill is one of three superintendents in Dallas County with a tenure of five years or more. The other two are Ricardo López in Garland ISD and Magda Hernandez in Irving ISD.

Cedar Hill is not the only bright spot: DeSoto, Irving, Lancaster and Mesquite school districts are also exceeding the average statewide growth in performance, according to Commit.

Across Texas, the overall picture is grim, with only 40% of eighth-grade students scoring at grade level or above in math. There is an urgency to change this picture. The state’s economic momentum and innovation need a strong local talent pipeline.

While parents in other Dallas County districts may be disappointed in those districts’ results, there is a silver lining: Many districts are employing the right strategies to raise student scores, Shields said. But results take time.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com