Texas A&M freshman Nico Partida hopes to return to Omaha
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José de Jesus Ortiz, Founder & Editor in Chief
- May 29, 2026
Slugger Nico Partida enters NCAA Tourney with 12 homers
COLLEGE STATION – Eight years later, Nico Partida still has vivid memories of his first trip to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series. Texas A&M’s talented freshman third baseman was only 11 years old during that visit with his father, Neftali.
Partida was actually rooting for eventual 2018 CWS runner-up Arkansas because his friend played for the Razorbacks at the time. A dream was born on that trip to Omaha.
“It wasn’t until I went there until I realized how badly I wanted to go back,” said Nico Partida, an SEC All-Freshman Team selection. “Ever since I went there I knew it was definitely a place I wanted to go back to.”
Partida, 19, will start chasing his dream of playing in Omaha in earnest Friday afternoon when the No. 12-seeded Aggies open the NCAA Tournament’s College Station Regional against Lamar at Blue Bell Park. USC will face Texas State in the nightcap. The winners will meet on Saturday afternoon.
The losers will face each other in hopes of reaching the Regional final out of the losers’ bracket in the double-elimination format. The Regional is another opportunity for the Partidas to make a lifetime of memories, as they did eight years ago on their first trip to Omaha.
‘Awesome trip’
“It was an awesome trip,” Neftali says of the 2018 CWS. “One of his good, good friends and older mentors, Jax Biggers, was playing for Arkansas. We got to see a lot of baseball.”
Now it’s Nico Partida’s turn to chase a title. The Partidas hope to see a lot of baseball again as Nico returns to action. After he was limited to one pinch-hit appearance in the last nine games because of a hamstring injury, Partida says he’s healthy again.
Partida, who was named to Baseball America’s preseason Freshman of the Year watch list, has lived up to the high expectations he carried for himself. Perfect Game USA named Partida the Midseason National Freshman of the Year. He started the first 44 games of the season at third base before suffering a hamstring injury on May 2 against Auburn.
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Partida has posted a .317 batting average with 12 home runs, eight doubles and 41 RBIs. Along the way, he had 16 multi-hit games and 12 multi-RBI games.
“I feel like it’s gone well,” Nico Partida says of his freshman season. “It exceeded a lot of expectations.”
The 6-foot, 190-pounder from Pearland (Texas) High has hardly looked like a freshman at the plate, at third base or in the locker room. He has drawn lots of praise since winning the starting job at third base, prompting the Aggies to move All-SEC slugger Gavin Grahovac to first base.
Making teammates proud
“The kid’s a stud, man,” Grahovac said of Partida. “He shows up and you won’t even think he’s a freshman. He shows up, does his job, works hard and he’s ready to play every single day. I’m super proud at how he’s held himself this entire year, how he’s shown up to the ballpark and how he’s gone about his business.”
The Aggies (39-13) finished 18-11 in SEC play. Lamar is 34-25 overall after posting a 19-11 record in the Southland Conference. Texas A&M is making its 39th NCAA Tournament appearance and 14th as a Regional host. Nico Partida helped the Aggies hit 114 home runs to surpass 100 home runs in a season for only the third time in school history.
Partida insists that his main goal entering his freshman season was to help the Aggies reach Omaha. On an individual basis, though, he put 10 home runs atop his list of goals. Partida received All-State honors three times at Pearland High. He also was MVP of the Texas 6A semifinals twice.
Nonetheless, Partida says he was surprised to have hit 12 home runs so early. Few were surprised, though. Texas A&M coach Michael Earley says Partida’s physicality and talent helped him thrive as a freshman. Mindset was key as well.
“I think the most important thing is you have to be comfortable in your own skin,” Earley said. “You got to have confidence like (Partida) and Boston (Kellner) have. … I think that’s the biggest thing, his maturity level. But if you don’t think you can play and you don’t think you belong, you don’t. He definitely doesn’t feel that way.”
José de Jesus Ortiz
Founder & Editor in Chief
Award-winning writer Jose de Jesus Ortiz, a former lead sports columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has covered Major League Baseball since 1997 in Los Angeles, St. Petersburg, New York and Houston. He was the first Latino to serve as president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
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