Texas A&M baseball’s 8-2 loss to Missouri Friday night loss dropped its record to 19-10 overall and 3-5 in the SEC.
A&M starting pitcher Jonathan Childress gave up four earned runs in three innings of work. The outing raised his ERA to 4.84 on the season and his record is now 2-3. The Aggies also committed three errors in the contest.
Missouri starting pitcher Seth Halvorsen was able to keep A&M off balance for most of the night by throwing seven innings of two-run ball. The Aggies struck out 10 times off of Halvorsen and only managed three hits in the game.
Missouri jumped on Childress in the first inning to give itself a 1-0 lead going into the top half of the second. However, A&M bounced back in the third inning after Will Frizzell hit a two-run home run to give the Aggies a 2-1 lead. This would be the only time A&M held a lead in the entire game.
After holding Missouri scoreless in the second inning, Childress’s struggles continued in the third as the Tigers evened the game at 2 after a home run. Missouri’s offensive barrage continued in the fourth by scoring a pair of runs off of Childress to knock him out of the game and tacked on another run off A&M reliever Chandler Jozwiak to increase its lead to 5-2.
If there was to be an MVP in what was an all-around difficult game, it had to be Jozwiak. Even though he did give up four runs, three earned, as a reliever, he was able to eat up valuable innings for A&M coach Rob Childress to save up A&M’s bullpen for Saturday’s series finale. Jozwiak was also able to strike out six batters in his appearance.
After throwing a pair of scoreless innings in the fifth and sixth innings, Missouri was able to break the game open in the seventh and eighth innings by scoring three runs off Jozwiak to increase its lead to 8-2.
Missouri pitcher Konnor Ash closed the Aggies out in the ninth inning to give Missouri the win.
A&M has a chance to bounce back and win the series against Missouri at 3 p.m. on Saturday.