In its biggest test yet, the Texas A&M Aggie baseball team defeated No. 23 Dallas Baptist 7-5 to remain unbeaten.
No. 11 Texas A&M (13-0) head coach Rob Childress said the game was tough throughout.
“We saw as good a pitching staff as we’ve seen all year, and may see for some time,” Childress said. “There were a lot of punches thrown by both teams and we were fortunate to come out on top.”
Blake Allemand opened the first inning with a bang for the Aggies by hitting a deep triple to right field, and Mitchell Nau brought him in to score later in the inning giving A&M a 1-0 lead.
The Patriots (6-2) responded immediately, tying the game with a solo home run from David Martinelli.
A mistake occurred in the top of the fourth that allowed the Patriots to take a 2-1 lead. Runners were at the corners, and after Dallas Baptist put forth a double steal, the Aggies mishandled the play at second. This allowed Justin Wall from third to score and David Martinelli to reach third base.
The Aggies bats caught fire in the bottom of the fourth inning. They scored four runs off of five straight hits which gave them a 5-2 lead. The five hits in a row were the most consecutive this season. Logan Taylor hit his fifth home run of the season and brought in Nick Banks to finish off the inning.
Dallas Baptist continued to respond quickly by getting two runs in the fourth inning and cutting the Aggies lead to one. Martinelli singled through the left side and brought in Duzenack to tie the game 5-5 in the seventh inning.
The theme of answering back quickly continued as the Aggies scored two runs in the seventh inning to retake the lead at 7-5. Ryne Birk hit a single to left field allowing Michael Barash to score and then with the bases loaded, Hunter Melton was walked, which enabled Allemand to score.
Blake Allemand praised Ryne Birk’s performance at the end of the game.
“He’s a hard fought competitor, he’s going to do his best in there and he kept fouling tough pitches,” Allemand said. “[[Their pitcher] was coming in with some pretty good pitches, but he was able to get one off and put a good swing on it. That sums up Ryne, he’s a clutch guy who really puts good swings on the ball and he’s going to battle his butt off.”
Ryan Hendrix came into the game during the eighth inning and helped get a key double play to get out a jam. He went on to finish the game and achieved his third save of the season.
The challenges for the Aggie baseball team doesn’t stop here, as they’ll travel to Houston this weekend to partake in the Astros College Classic, which will hold a string of tests in the young season.