Sports

Texas A&M Baseball Fans Caused Pitcher To Completely Melt Down With Suffocating ‘Ball Nine’ Chant

by Last Updated
Texas A&M Baseball Ball Five Chant
© Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Texas A&M began the 2025 college baseball season with a 4-2 win over Elon on Friday night. Blue Bell Park proved, once again, why it is the most intimidating environment in the country for opposing pitchers.

The Aggies’ legendary ‘Ball Five’ chant got all of the way up to Ball Nine on Opening Day.

Pitching against Texas A&M can very quickly turn into a nightmare if the ball is not crossing the plate. College baseball fans in College Station are relentless and will not let the visiting pitcher off of the hook. As soon as he throws four balls in a row, the crowd begins to chant “Ball Five” over and over and over again until the next pitch is delivered. If that next pitch is also a ball, the chant switches to “Ball Six” and so on and so forth.

Fans and players around the SEC have become accustomed to the chant, which can be unraveling for the pitcher. It is suffocating to the point that he cannot think, let alone throw the ball into the strike zone.

Mid-major programs like Elon typically play their home games in front of a couple hundred people— if that. The Phoenix played in front of 8,013 fans on Friday. It was the largest Opening Day crowd in Texas A&M baseball history and the eighth-largest crowd all-time. All of them were rooting for the Aggies.

Elon pitcher Nolan Straniero threw four-straight balls during the bottom of the sixth inning and ignited a booming chorus of “Baaaaaalllllllllllllllll five.” He was completely rattled. The chant became suffocating.

Straniero could not find the zone and Texas A&M’s raucous crowd reached ball nine.

Rarely does the chant get up to nine. It has gone as high as 12 in the past but it usually stops around six or seven. To get a “Ball Nine” chant on Opening Day is exhilarating. Texas A&M beat Elon by two runs.