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With Braden Montgomery Out for Season, Texas A&M ‘Grateful’ for His Impact

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With Braden Montgomery Out for Season, Texas A&M ‘Grateful’ for His Impact


Ninety feet to home plate.

As Braden Montgomery rounded third base — waiting for the go-ahead signal from third-base coach Nolan Cain — following a base hit to left field from Ted Burton, it was a no-brainer. Cain decided to send him, and with the speed of the impending throw about to intercept him at home plate, he’d have to slide. It was the only way he’d be able to score.

A successful slide meant the Texas A&M Aggies would tie their Super Regional matchup against the Oregon Ducks and have a chance to add more runs to play from in front rather than from behind. Montgomery knew that, so he did what he had to.

He almost made it.

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“I’ve been playing them for a couple of years,” Montgomery, a Stanford transfer, said prior to hosting the Ducks with a trip to Omaha on the line. “(But) I’ve never had a chance to win a lot against them, so it’s cool to get another opportunity to play against them.”

Stanford Cardinal right fielder Braden Montgomery (6) heads for first base after hitting a single during the first inning.

Jun 18, 2022; Omaha, NE, USA; Stanford Cardinal right fielder Braden Montgomery (6) heads for first base after hitting a single during the first inning against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Charles Schwab Field. / Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

Montgomery wanted revenge against the team that had sent his Cardinal home losers quite a few times in Pac-12 play. Perhaps that’s why he chose to go all-out on a slide that would give his Aggies even the slightest boost of momentum. He’d guarantee that his team benefitted from his performance.

Instead of getting that, however, he twisted his ankle, stayed down a few minutes, and hobbled off of the field with an air cast. Montgomery was projected to be the No. 4 overall pick in the MLB Draft. In other words, a season-ending injury meant his Aggie baseball days were done.

He hadn’t even spent a full 12 months in Aggieland.

“He showed up in August,” Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said of his star player. “Our season is going to be over hopefully at the end of June, and then he’s got the draft, so he won’t even spend 12 months in College Station.”

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Montgomery was — as has become one of Schlossnagle’s best qualities — a star recruit. He was supposed to enter the program and provide it with an instant boost, which he certainly did. In one season with the Aggies, the junior outfielder tallied 27 home runs on a .322 batting average.

He was always third in the lineup. The player that, if any, could extend an inning already doomed by two outs. Montgomery was the Aggies’ spark plug, and now, they face the tall task of competing for a spot in the Men’s College World Series without him. Both in the batting order and in the outfield.

Suddenly, Montgomery’s injury affected far more than himself.

“The only person that feels worse than Braden is Nolan right now,” Schlossnagle expressed when asked about the decision to send Montgomery home from third. “I’m sure he wishes something different would have happened, but that has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with it.”

Texas A&M outfielder Braden Montgomery (6) is looked at by the medical staff and home plate umpire Mark Wagers after sliding.

Jun 8, 2024; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M outfielder Braden Montgomery (6) is looked at by the medical staff and home plate umpire Mark Wagers after sliding into home plate during the first inning against Oregon at Olsen Field, Blue Bell Park. / Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports

Cain’s guilt makes sense. Had Montgomery stayed put, he would’ve been brought in by Hayden Schott’s next at-bat. But, as he mentioned, that’s not how the Aggies are looking at it.

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“(To) all the second-guessers: ‘Just don’t even show up tomorrow,’” Schlossnagle said. “Just don’t even come to the freaking game.” 

As jarring as Montgomery’s injury was for the Aggies, there isn’t much they can do but rally. They might not be able to play with their teammate, but they can certainly play for him.

Just like they did for eight innings in Game 1.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever been more proud of a team,” Schlossnagle said of his team’s efforts after Montgomery left the game. “(Ryan) Prager goes out, didn’t have a great first inning. Then we battle back into it, and then the injury … Then to get down 6-3, just the emotions of that, I think a lot of teams fold. But Chris (Cortez) gave us a big lift. … Super proud of our club.”

Schlossnagle had been in a similar position before. His squad at Tulane lost one of their top players late in the season, and when he moved to TCU, it happened again. Montgomery was the latest installment of his squad’s injury-riddled past, but for this year’s Aggies, it was brand new.

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That made it hurt more.

That and the thought of being without the kind of person Montgomery was.

“I think our guys would attest that the greatest thing about Braden is (that) he dove into his teammates,” Schlossnagle said. “Him coming here … It’s been transformational for everybody involved. I told the team after the game that now, Braden’s challenge is to be the greatest teammate to everybody else that everybody’s been to him.”

Jun 8, 2024; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle looks on from the dugout prior to a game.

Jun 8, 2024; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle looks on from the dugout prior to the game against the Oregon at Olsen Field, Blue Bell Park. / Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports

Montgomery held a monumental weight for the Aggies. He’d played winning baseball before and proved it with his constant performances game in and game out, but he — as Schlossnagle affirmed — was also a winning teammate. He was a big reason why Texas A&M had such a close dugout.

A dugout he re-joined after leaving the game to get his ankle treated.

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“On and off the I field, it’s just a very close group,” Aggies catcher Jackson Appel said. “I mean, just talking about Braden being here for only nine months. I guess there’s a lot of us that have only been here for nine months, (but) it’s a tight group of kids.”

Cortez — the Aggies’ saving grace from the mound in Game 1 — certainly agreed.

“It’s like, I get to go home and I can play video games with the kid,” he said. “I have the greatest time just hanging out with him on the sticks. We play for hours and it has nothing to do with baseball. It’s just the kid is … He’s a kid, and I don’t know, I couldn’t be more grateful for him.” 

Nothing the Aggies’ relief pitcher said would go without agreement from the rest of the team, nor Schlossnagle. It was clear how much Montgomery brought, and because of that, how much of an impact losing him truly was. But with or without him, they know their season is still far from over.

When the next Aggie on second base makes a run around the diamond — waiting for the go-ahead signal from third-base coach Nolan Cain — following a base hit to left field, they might notice a no-brainer situation. They’ll see ninety feet in front of them to home plate. They’ll see Montgomery.

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When he goes for a slide, he’ll hope it’s successful. Not just for the sake of the scoreboard, but for the sake of his teammate. If it is successful, he’ll head to the dugout and go straight for Montgomery. The player who used to bat third. The player who now sits in the dugout watching his teammates play for a chance at a national title.

And when he gets to him, both he and Schlossnagle will know they’ve accomplished their goal.

“He helped us get to (this) point, and he’ll be a great teammate moving forward,” Schlossnagle said, looking ahead to games without Montgomery.

“Our job is to get him back to Omaha.” 



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North Texas middle school closes after a norovirus outbreak

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North Texas middle school closes after a norovirus outbreak


A middle school in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD is closed Friday after an outbreak of norovirus.

According to the school district, they closed Creekview Middle School in Fort Worth on Friday to sanitize and clean the building. The district said they plan on reopening the school on Monday.

The district said children started to get sick on Tuesday with what appeared to be a stomach virus and that on Wednesday it spread to a larger group.

EMSISD said they reached out to the Tarrant County Public Health Department and that they recommended disinfecting and cleaning the school on Wednesday night and reopening the next day.

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More cases continued to be reported on Thursday, so the public health department then recommended that they clean again and close the campus on Friday.

Parents were notified of the district’s decision on Thursday afternoon.

The district has not said how many students and staff were sickened in the outbreak.

Officials with Children’s Medical Center said that because norovirus is highly contagious and resistant to many common hand sanitizers, it presents a unique challenge for families.

The hospital says hand sanitizer isn’t enough and recommends thorough hand washing with soap and water. They also recommend parents keep their children home for a full 48 hours after symptoms stop to prevent further outbreaks.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are approximately 2,500 norovirus outbreaks in the United States each year and that they are most common from November through April. For further tips on preventing the spread of norovirus, visit the CDC.



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Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary

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Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary


WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump just can’t seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican primary.

So when he travels to the state on Friday for his first post- State of the Union trip, where he plans to promote his energy and economic policies, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him — just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race.

Sen. John Cornyn is battling for his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a primary fight that has become viciously personal. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address from Tuesday, where he declared a return to economic prosperity and a more secure America — two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities this fall.

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Trump’s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race.

Cornyn is unpopular with a segment of Texas’ GOP base, in part for his early dismissiveness of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign and for his role in authoring tougher restrictions on guns after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But Senate GOP leadership and allied groups see Cornyn as the stronger general election candidate, in light of a series of troubles that have shadowed Paxton.

Paxton beat impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and has faced allegations of marital infidelity by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, is joined by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: AP/Eric Gay

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged Trump to endorse Cornyn. They and allied campaign groups argue that the seat would cost the party hundreds of millions more to defend with Paxton as the candidate.

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“It is a strong possibility we cannot hold Texas if John Cornyn is not our nominee,” Scott told Fox News on Wednesday.

Hunt, a second-term Houston-area representative, was a later entry to the race, but claims a kinship with Trump, having endorsed him early in the 2024 race. Hunt campaigned regularly for Trump and earned a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

If no candidate reaches 50% in Tuesday’s primary, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas,...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, arrive before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Credit: AP/Allison Robbert

Cornyn’s campaign and a half-dozen allied groups have poured more than $63 million into the race since last fall, chiefly trying to slow Paxton but recently attacking Hunt in an effort to keep him from making it to the runoff.

Earlier this month, Trump feinted toward weighing in on the race when he said he was taking “a serious look” at endorsing in the Texas primary. He has since reaffirmed his neutrality.

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Still, you wouldn’t know it from watching TV in Texas. Cornyn has been airing ads since last year touting his support for Trump’s agenda, even though his relationship with the president has been cool at times. Paxton and Hunt both have ads airing now featuring them standing with Trump.

“I like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good. You’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens. But I support all three,” Trump said earlier this month.

The GOP battle comes as Democrats have a contested primary of their own in Texas between state Rep. James Talarico, a self-described policy wonk who regularly quotes the Bible, and progressive favorite U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

Trump hasn’t been shy about wading into other contested Republican primaries in the state. Parts of Corpus Christi fall within Texas’ 34th congressional district, where former Rep. Mayra Flores is fighting to reclaim her seat against the Trump-endorsed Eric Flores. (The two are not related.) The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, long a target of the GOP, whose district was redrawn to make it easier for a Republican to win.

Eric Flores will be at the Trump event at the Port of Corpus Christi, which technically is located in a neighboring district.

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Elsewhere in the state, the president has also endorsed Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is fighting calls from his own party to resign from Congress after reports of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire. Gonzales is refusing to step down and has said that there will be “opportunities for all of the details and facts to come out” and that the stories about the situation do not represent “all the facts.”

Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer who Gonzales defeated by fewer than 400 votes in their 2024 runoff. The White House did not return a request for comment on Thursday on whether Trump stands by his endorsement of Gonzales.



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Man sentenced to 15 years in Texas crash that killed founding member of The Chicks

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Man sentenced to 15 years in Texas crash that killed founding member of The Chicks


EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting his reckless driving caused a head-on collision in rural West Texas that killed Laura Lynch, a founding member of the country music group now known as The Chicks, prosecutors said.

Domenick Chavez, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Dec. 22, 2023, crash in Hudspeth County, according to a news release Tuesday from El Paso County District James Montoya, who also oversees nearby Hudspeth County.

The news release said Chavez was driving a truck westbound when he tried to pass four vehicles on a two-way undivided highway and collided head-on with Lynch’s eastbound truck. Lynch, 65, of Dell City, was trapped in her vehicle and died. Prosecutors said Chavez was traveling between 106 mph and 114 mph.

Prosecutors said alcohol wasn’t a factor in the crash but that Chavez was driving on a suspended license, which had been revoked due to his failure to comply with DWI-related surcharges and penalties from convictions in 2014 and 2017.

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Lynch, along with Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, formed The Dixie Chicks in the late 1980s. Lynch and Macy eventually left the band and Natalie Maines joined the sisters. The trio hit commercial fame with their breakthrough album “Wide Open Spaces” in 1998 and have won 13 Grammys. In 2020, the band changed its name to The Chicks.

In a social media post after Lynch’s death, The Chicks said Lynch had “infectious energy and humor” and was “instrumental” in the band’s early success.



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