HOUSTON – It was a bright and sunny day with the roof open at Minute Maid Park, but Texas A&M rained on the reconciliation with former conference foe Texas Tech, pouring all over the Red Raiders (9-2) in a dominant 9-0 win for the Aggies (9-1) in their Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic opener Friday afternoon.
Junior Brigham Hill (3-0) was lights out for A&M, throwing seven scoreless innings and fanning eight hitters. Hill never faced more than four batters in a single inning and worked a trio of 1-2-3 frames.
“I felt great early on, I wasn’t right where I wanted to be,” Hill said. “Later on, I was able to develop my fastball and the guys around me we’re able to keep me relaxed – great defense. And when you’ve got that kind of run support, it makes my job a whole lot easier.
The bats were electric for the maroon and white, led by freshman Logan Foster who went 4-for-5 on the day, playing like a pro rather than a rookie. On the day, A&M tallied 15 hits, six for extra bases and two home runs.
“Offensively, one through nine I felt like we had a great approach and were the aggressor,” A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “We did talk about trying to go every left-handed bat in the lineup today against [Tech pitcher Davis] Martin who’s so tough against right-handed hitters. I’m glad [Foster] was in the lineup, he had a great day.”
On the other side, the Red Raiders shot blanks all afternoon, recording just three hits and never advanced a runner past second base.
“I feel like their hitters got tight,” Hill said of Tech’s hitting struggles. “That just helps me throw more strikes and have fun out there.”
A&M tacked on two in the sixth, as Logan Foster led off the frame with a hooking home run over the right field fence. Hunter Coleman scored Joel Davis from second five batters later to make it 9-0 A&M.
“It’ll definitely be a memory that’ll last for a lifetime,” Foster said of the home run. “I had a huge smile on my face and then seeing Coach Bolt at third base it just lit me up.”
The Aggies had their most successful inning in the third, scoring three runs via three extra-base hits. Foster drove in Choruby from first on his second double of the day which hung up in the fence in left centerfield. Braden Shewmake followed Foster by launching a first-pitch skyrocket home run that just snuck over the fence in the right field corner to give A&M a 4-0 advantage.
“Me and Braden are rooming together and so we’ve been good friends since we’ve got down here this summer,” Foster added. “Seeing him come around third base, it puts a big smile on your face.”
A&M added another run in the fourth, as Choruby recorded an RBI single to bring in George Janca from second. The run ended the day for Tech’s ace Davis Martin (2-1) who struggled mightily in 3.2 IP, allowing five runs on eight hits – five of which went for extra bases.
“[Martin’s] a great pitcher, his stats definitely show it,” Davis said. “Just having relentless at-bats by our team this game and a lot of the big hits we had are because guys were working [Martin] before that guy got up. Credit to the whole team, working him down and being able to hit the mistake he gave us.”
Yet again, the Aggies crossed the plate twice in the fifth. Janca plated Davis from third on an infield single deep in the hole to short. Austin Homan brought Blake Kopetsky home on the next pitch on a sacrifice fly to the left field corner, making it 7-0 A&M.
A&M broke the ice quickly in the bottom of the first as Davis scored Foster from third on an RBI double that just stayed fair down the left field foul line – giving the Aggies an early 1-0 lead.
Tech missed a golden opportunity to knot the game up in the next half inning, but the Red Raiders ran themselves out of a scoring chance as Hill picked off Tanner Gardner trying to steal third and then doubled up Zach Rheams trying to take second to end the inning.
“I was telling the guys earlier that’s my second pick off I’ve had in my life, the first one was last weekend,” Hill jokingly said. “That was huge and I feel like that was the big game changer right there.”
The Aggies return to action Saturday night when they face No. 1 TCU at 7:00 p.m. at Minute Maid Park. The game will be aired on FS2.
