After dropping the lead late to No. 1 TCU Saturday night, the No. 15 A&M baseball team saw another game disappear as Baylor hit a walk-off grand slam to win 6-3 at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
After being down 3-1 heading into the ninth inning, Baylor (11-1) rallied off of A&M’s (9-3) reliever Corbin Martin (0-2). After pitching a scoreless eighth, Landon Miner started the ninth inning for A&M but was pulled following an infield single.
When he entered the game, Martin gave up three straight singles — the final from Kameron Esthay, to cut the lead to 3-2. Following Esthay’s RBI single, the Bear’s Aaron Dodson laid down a bunt and his teammate Hunter Seay would draw a free pass from Martin to load the bases with one out. Two batters later after Martin recorded a strikeout, Tucker Cascadden would hit a grand slam to end the game.
Sophomore Mitchell Kilkenny started for the Aggies and turned in a quality start on the mound. Kilkenny was nearly untouchable — over a span of seven innings, he gave up one run and four hits while striking out seven.
Kilkenny said it’s his job to be supportive of the bullpen when it struggles.
“All you can do is encourage them,” Kilkenny said to reporters post-game. “You hit speed bumps — it happens, you just have to learn from them.”
Second basemen Braden Shewmake said head coach Rob Childress told the team how important bouncing back from a tough loss will be moving forward.
“He told us that it’s going to be a long season and we’re going to face adversity like this — it’s going to be all about how we respond,” Shewmake said to reporters after the game. “Two games in March isn’t going to be what determines this season for us. We’re a lot better baseball team now than we were when we started and we know that. So, I think we’ll be fine.”
After struggling in the first two innings with runners in scoring position, A&M (10-2) would draw first blood in the third inning. Logan Foster and Shewmake came through for their team on offense.
The maroon and white got on the board after Foster tripled and Shewmake followed with an RBI-double to bring Foster home. Shewmake crossed the plate two batters later — after tagging to take third on a fly ball, Walker Pennington hit an RBI groundout to the right side of the infield and Shewmake would score, giving A&M a 2-0 lead.
Shewmake and Foster would get things started again in the fifth. Foster doubled and Shewmake grounded out to get Foster over to third. Joel Davis would follow with an RBI on a ball that bounced right over the Bears’ second baseman Josh Bissonette, giving A&M a 3-0 lead.
The Bear’s would first cross the plate in the sixth inning — after a 6-4-3 double play ball off of the bat of Matt Menard allowed Richard Cunningham to score from third, cutting into A&M’s 3-1 lead.
At times, the Aggies struggled to make contact with the ball, striking out 10 times in total. Cole Bedford and Baine Schoenvogel struck out twice and Nick Choruby fanned three times.
Baylor’s fourth reliever on the night Troy Montemayor, earned the win for Bears after throwing a scoreless ninth.
A&M leaves the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children College Classic Tournament at 1-2, with a win against Texas Tech Friday and losses coming from TCU and Baylor in the final two days of action.
The Aggies will return home and host UT-Rio Grande Valley for a two-game set starting Tuesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Both games can be seen on the SEC Network Plus.
