The No. 5 A&M baseball team defeated Big Ten favorite Michigan State, 4-0, Saturday at Blue Bell Park – clenching the series and setting up for a potential sweep come Sunday afternoon.
Senior pitcher Ross Stripling’s first two starts were not indicative of his 14-2 record in 2011, but his third was a bounce-back to All-American form. Stripling pitched a full eight innings, giving up only five hits and striking out five with no runs scored.
“I finally got my change-up working today, kept them off balance,” said Stripling. “Overall it was about half fastballs, half off-speed, which when I’m doing well, that’s how I am.”
Though the offense had just as many hits as their opponents, timing was the key to scoring runs.
The Aggies sparked an active second inning when senior first baseman Jacob House reached first on an error, and then scored on a sacrifice fly by sophomore catcher Troy Stein. Junior left-fielder Brandon Wood followed suit with a score off a fielder’s choice by freshman second baseman Blake Allemand. Later in the inning, freshman designated hitter Chance Bolcerek scored on a single by junior right-fielder Tyler Naquin.
After a quiet four innings, senior second baseman Scott Arthur, who entered the game as a pinch runner for Allemand, scored on a single by senior third baseman Matt Juengel in the bottom of the seventh.
“It was a tough day to hit with the wind blowing in, but I thought we had competitive at bats,” said A&M head coach Rob Childress “I would have liked to have scored more runs today too, but I thought that run we scored late was a big one for us.”
The Aggies got to share the victory with a Blue Bell Park record crowd of 5,532. Stripling said he enjoyed playing for the solid showing.
“It’s awesome to be able to pitch in front of the biggest crowd at this park,” Stripling said. “It’s louder, and it’s a real intimidating place to play.”
The Aggies will resume play at 1:05 p.m. Sunday as they look to sweep the Spartans and move to 11-1 on the season. Stripling said Saturday’s win against a quality opponent will help spur more victories for the team down the stretch.
“It’s always good to get through opponents that we know are more difficult, so that we can build some confidence,” said Stripling. “We just take it one game at a time, like we always do.”