In what was a rollercoaster of a series, hitting was the star of the weekend. Balls left the yard all series long, and the Olsen Field scoreboard was lit up with run after run. After splitting the first two games of the series, A&M could not overcome a first-inning mistake and fell to South Carolina 8-7 Sunday.
This is the third series loss in the last four SEC series for A&M. Over the weekend, the two teams combined for 17 home runs, 60 runs and 79 total hits.
“We don’t get off to a good start when you have to go to the bullpen in the first inning, you’re going to have to be very good to give yourself a chance, and we certainly were,” said A&M head coach Rob Childress. “We had our chance, had the guys at the plate we wanted, but at the end of the day we have to be better on the mound and better defensively to deserve a chance to win a series.”
The Gamecocks (30-22, 12-15 SEC) broke the scoring seal quickly. After an error by A&M put two on, Kyle Martin hit his third home run of the series, a three-run bomb, to give Carolina a 3-0 lead early.
In what was a home run derby of a weekend, Blake Allemand joined the fun on Senior Day and hit a solo dinger over the wall in right to shave a run off the Carolina lead, and the score read 3-1 after three frames. A&M would get another run to make it a 3-2 game.
South Carolina had a big four-run fifth inning to gain a 7-2 lead going into the sixth inning and tacked on one more for an 8-2 lead.
A&M (42-9, 17-9 SEC) showed its resiliency with back-to-back home runs from Logan Nottebrok and Jonathan Moroney to shave the lead to 8-6 after the sixth. Nottebrok led A&M at the plate, going 1-for-4 with four RBI on the afternoon.
“We definitely swung it,” Nottebrok said. “We put up runs and competed every game, we just did not play good enough defense. They made all the plays they had to make and we didn’t. That’s just how baseball works.”
The Aggie pitching staff was shaky all weekend. Sunday, the Aggies used five different pitchers, finally finding some rhythm with Andrew Vinson later in the game. He came on in the sixth inning and retired all 11 batters he faced to keep within striking distance going into the bottom of the ninth inning.
In a one-run game, A&M had its chances in the ninth inning. But with Ryne Birk on third, the Aggies could not drive him in for the tying run.
Friday night kicked the wild series off with a bang. A&M trailed 6-3 in the seventh inning, but a three-run dinger from Mitchell Nau tied the game 6-6. However, Kyle Martin started his big weekend with a three-run bomb in the ninth to give South Carolina a lead it held in the 9-7 win.
One of the craziest games of the college baseball season took place Saturday afternoon. The Aggies, who trailed three times by scores of 5-0, 9-6, and 13-9, trailed again 14-12 in the bottom of the ninth. Hunter Melton made it a one-run game with a solo homer. Then, on his father’s birthday and senior weekend, Blake Allemand hit his first career walk off hit, a two-run double, to give the Aggies a 15-14 win to even the series up.
“Our guys did a great job all weekend long. From an offensive standpoint, we did enough to win the series or even sweep the series. We just weren’t very good in other facets, the most important facets.”
The Aggies will travel to Huntsville on Tuesday night to take on the Sam Houston State Bearkats for the second time this season.