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.

“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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

“(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.

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.”

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.

“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.

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.”