After getting swept by the Florida Gators in Gainesville to begin conference play, Texas A&M baseball hosted the 10-9 Rice Owls in a midweek Tuesday matchup at Olsen Field to rebound before Georgia comes to town this upcoming Friday. A&M owned an 11-game home win streak coming into Tuesday’s game, which was snapped as the Owls took the 2-1 decision.
Nathan Dettmer took the mound for A&M in his seventh appearance this season, having last pitched a week ago against Houston, throwing for three innings and allowing one run with a 1.96 season ERA. Freshman Garret Zaskoda was Rice’s hurler, who came in having given up six runs and seven hits in his last appearance.
Indications early on were that this ballgame was going to a pitching duel all night down until the last inning, and that’s exactly what happened. Neither team crossed home plate until the fourth inning as both teams combined for just four hits with A&M only having one that came off the bat of Austin Bost in the first.
The Aggies got one hit in the first inning, and would not find the column again until the ninth.
A&M coach Rob Childress commended Rice’s pitching staff and said they were brilliant all game long at limiting scoring opportunities.
“They did a great job for nine innings,” Childress said. “For us not to have an opportunity with a runner in scoring position until the sixth inning — give Rice pitchers all the credit.”
The Owls managed to find their first run of the ballgame in the fourth on a sac fly off the bat of Cade Edwards. They had eight hits by five players on Tuesday night.
Dettmer continued to show off his ability on the mound tonight, going six innings and giving up no earned runs, walking just one and striking out six. Chandler Jozwiak took his place in the seventh and rebounded after a tough previous outing and struck out three in 1.2 scoreless innings.
Dettmer’s performance received high remarks from Childress, who said it was the best performance of his career as an Aggie.
“I thought far and away it was the best performance of his career at Texas A&M,” said Childress. “His delivery, his rhythm, his timing were very good, he had all three pitches working.”
The Aggies simply couldn’t find a hit all night, much less baserunners to disrupt the opposing pitcher’s momentum. The effort of Rice’s pitching staff was incredible, with Zaskoda getting 10 of the 19 batters he faced out on either ground balls or fly balls, and also struck out six while only allowing five total baserunners in 5.1 innings. Owls’ reliever Drake Greenwood also pitched excellent, throwing 2.2 innings and striking out five while walking one.
With Alex Magers taking over on the mound for A&M in the top of the ninth with the score locked at 1-0, Rice’s Hal Hughes singled into center field with two outs and scored Connor Walsh, who singled with one out earlier in the inning and advanced on a ground ball. The valuable insurance run made it 2-0 with one last chance for the Aggies.
Rice two-way player Guy Garibay, who came into Tuesday with a pair of saves on the year, had three hits on the night as a right fielder, and scored the first run the night took the mound in the bottom of the ninth to try and secure the upset win for Rice.
Will Frizzell led off the inning with a loud out number one to the warning track in center field, as Garibay retired Bost with three quick pitches for the second out.
Then out of nowhere, Hunter Coleman lifted a deep solo home run that just scraped over the wall in center field to cut it to 2-1. It was Coleman’s fourth round-tripper of the year despite just starting one game on the season.
Unfortunately Garibay induced a groundout on the ensuing at-bat to secure the upset and signature win for Rice with a final score of 2-1.
The Aggies will try to snap a four-game losing streak in a three-game set against the Georgia Bulldogs this weekend in College Station. The series begins on Friday night with first pitch set for 6 p.m. on SEC Network from Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.