It's time to give Rob Childress and his coaching staff credit.

Actually, it's past time, but since it hasn't been done, at least not here before in this manner, here goes.

First, lets not confuse credit and respect. After sweeping "No. 4" Missouri over the weekend, respect was the buzzword -- as in the Aggies saying they weren't getting enough of it. I'm assuming they meant nationally, since at that time one poll had A&M ranked 18th while another had Missouri fourth. A&M was 34-7 and Missouri was 29-11.

Earning respect on the national scene takes time, a College World Series appearance or a series of NCAA Super Regional apperances. But respect is not a prerequisite to where you finish at the end of the season in college baseball, which ultimately lets the schools rank themselves in the NCAA Tournament.

That's not to say the Aggie baseball program doesn't deserve respect.

For now, though, this is about credit.

Childress deserves it for revamping a program that had slipped from a decade of excellence in the 1990s to being left out of the NCAA Tournament four of six years and not qualifying -- which is hard to do -- for the Big 12 tournament in 2005. He also deserves it for building a solid foundation through recruiting and proving it can be maintained despite a decided turnover among the core of its players -- three starters up the middle and two pitchers that combined for 22 of their 48 victories last season. And maybe all of this goes hand-in-hand, but the coaches should also be credited for putting a competitive, fundamental, hard working and entertaining team on the field.

The numbers say enough.

Under Childress, the Aggies erased their two-year absence from the Big 12 tournament by winning it for the first time last season. And since being swept by Texas at the end of last year's regular season, the Aggies have won 21 of 25 games against Big 12 opponents, which would've been good enough to win the league in any year since it formed in 1997.

In Childress' third year, A&M is closing in on its first regular season Big 12 title since 1999. The Aggies' magic number is four with six games remaining.

The 38-7 Aggies head into their nonconference series against Dallas Baptist (29-13) on Thursday leading the Big 12 in hitting and pitching.

But there is more to it than numbers.

Childress' team, with a great deal of input from his staff, plays a captivating, attacking brand of baseball. Running hard from the crack of the bat has the Aggies leading the league with 26 triples and averaging more than four extra-base hits a game. Last season, the Aggies broke the school record with 151 stolen bases. Bunting for singles, bunting to score runners from second and constantly digging for those extra bases puts pressure on the opponents, even when it backfires once in a while. A&M has induced pitchers into late-inning walks, balks and hit batsmen, all of which have led to victories. Opponents wonder what's coming next when these Aggies get on the basepaths.

The Aggies also take the offensive on defense. This season, the Aggies have helped themselves to five Big 12 sweeps with defensive plays that get the fans on their feet as much as a walk-off homer.

A&M threw out four baserunners at third base in its sweep of Oklahoma. None of the four were force-outs.

Left fielder Ben Feltner robbed Missouri of a grand slam in a game A&M won by a run. In the next game, right fielder Brian Ruggiano threw out a runner at first base.

Pitcher Brooks Raley and third baseman Dane Carter both showed athleticism and alertness by fielding sacrifice bunt attempts and throwing out the lead runner twice in a 2-1 victory over Baylor.

Those kinds of plays and a pitching staff that works fast and throws strikes is a big reason the Aggies are ranked No. 5 -- as high as they've been in nine years.

There are other intangibles of Childress' coaching that have no way of being measured. The best example of that is Blake Stouffer.

After getting drafted in the fourth round, the All-Big 12 player who hit .398 chose to return for his senior season at A&M. Maybe Stouffer had several reasons for returning, but whatever they were, players don't come back to a place they weren't happy with.

Childress rewarded Stouffer by moving him to second base, a position he'd never played before. No problem, said Stouffer, who has fared well in the field and recently had a 19-game hitting streak after a slow start at the plate.

In three years, Childress has directed his team to the same, if not higher, heights, as former Aggie basketball coach who was constantly being acknowledged for what he had accomplished in a three-year span across the street at Reed Arena.

It's true that Childress' job wasn't as daunting as Billy Gillispie's. When Gillispie took over, A&M basketball was at an all-time low. Childress took over an A&M baseball program with a solid history, tradition and fan base that any coach could build around.

Still, it was no given that the baseball team would right itself, especially this quickly.

And for that Childress deserves credit.

• Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.