It only took one day for Texas A&M to clinch its fifth-straight SEC series as the Aggies outscored Missouri 18-2 Friday to take both games of a doubleheader.
Brigham Hill turned in another sensational performance on the mound for A&M in the opener, throwing seven scoreless innings for the second consecutive week. Hill (6-3) scattered two hits and two walks while striking out seven.
Meanwhile, Braden Shewmake had a huge day at the plate to jumpstart an Aggie lineup that had relatively struggled in recent weeks. The freshman second baseman went 4-for-6 in game one with two RBI and seven of the eight other starters recorded at least one hit.
George Janca hit his fifth home run of the season in the seventh, a two-run shot that gave the Aggies (32-13, 13-8 SEC) a commanding 9-0 lead.
“Today was the best we’ve played all season,” A&M head coach Rob Childress said after the game. “The offense was on the attack early and relentless for 18 innings. The pitching and defense couldn’t have been much better.”
Senior outfielders Nick Choruby and Blake Kopetsky recorded multi-hits of their own and Landon Miner pitched the final two innings in relief to preserve the Aggies’ 11-1 win.
Game two started as much more of a pitcher’s duel as Missouri sent its ace Tanner Houck to the hill. The Tigers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the third inning. After the first three Tigers reached base with singles, a pitch from A&M starter Corbin Martin got away from catcher Cole Bedford to allow Chris Cornelius to score from third.
Martin, however, rebounded to induce back-to-back groundouts to escape the inning without allowing any further damage.
The Aggies got on the board in the fifth. Hunter Coleman worked a one-out walk, advanced to third on a double by Kopetsky and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Austin Homan.
In the bottom of the fifth, Martin got into more trouble. He sandwiched a walk and a hit-by-pitch around a groundout, prompting Childress to bring in reliever Kaylor Chafin.
Chafin, who has been arguably A&M’s most reliable pitcher in 2017, proceeded to produce one of the Aggies’ best performances of the season. He retired all 14 hitters he faced, striking out eight in 4.2 flawless innings of work.
“My arm felt good,” Chafin said. “I just came in and trusted my pitches and the defense.”
A&M then tacked on three runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth to cruise to a 7-1 win. In all, Shewmake went 7-for-11 on the day with five RBI. Janca went 1-for-3 in game two and scored two runs.
“It was unbelievable,” Shewmake said of his day. “I just stuck to the approach the coaches have been nailing into our heads. They had some quality arms but we figured out a way to get big hits, keep the line moving and score a lot of runs.”
The teams will not play Saturday due to possible inclement weather, and the Aggies will go for the sweep Sunday at 1 p.m.