Superior pitching and defense led Texas A&M to a sweep of the Shriners College Classic at Minute Maid Park over the weekend, with wins over No. 18 Baylor, No. 17 TCU and Houston.
The Aggies finished off the tournament with a 3-2 win over the Houston Cougars, who trailed throughout the game on Sunday.
A&M struck first with a double in the fourth inning from Logan Foster that allowed Braden Shewmake to cross home plate to make it 1-0. Leadoff hitter and infielder Bryce Blaum solidified the A&M lead with a homerun to the Crawford Boxes in left field to make it 2-0 in the top of the fifth inning.
“Our team motto is dominate fastball strikes,” Blaum said. “When they throw it in there we’re going to get our best swing off’s in. That’s something we pride ourselves in as well and we just try to put our best swing on the ball every time.”
Houston made its best effort in the to come back in the sixth, with a double from senior first baseman Joe Davis allowing third baseman Justin Triolo to score from third base, making it 2-1.
However the Aggies responded in eighth inning with a ground ball from Aaron Walters while the bases were loaded, allowing Chandler Morris to sore, extending A&M’s lead to 3-1. The Cougars struck again in the bottom of the eighth with another double to left field from Davis that pushed Triolo to score.
A&M used five different pitchers over the course of the contest as freshman starting left-handed pitcher Jonathan Childress experienced forearm tightness and elbow issues after three innings, according to A&M head coach Rob Childress.
“He got us off to a really good start and was in control of the game,” Childress said. “We’ll find out more this week. Each guy that came in behind him was outstanding and you never know when your name is going to be called. Might be at the least [opportune] moment that you think is going to happen and just like that, [Chandler Jozwiak] is in there.”
The Aggies had 10 strikeouts while the Cougars only came up with six from the three pitchers they utilized.
Saturday’s game versus TCU was not nearly as offensively oriented as the game on Sunday. Rather, it was a pitchers’ duel between A&M’s Asa Lacy and TCU’s Brandon Williamson. A&M escaped with the 1-0 upset over the No.17 Horned Frogs.
Sophomore pitcher Lacy led the A&M pitchers with nine of the 12 strikeouts against TCU, allowing only one hit the entire game. The Horned Frogs went 1-for-25 from the plate Saturday night.
Williamson allowed the lone run of the game by walking Foster with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning. Williamson allowed two hits in five innings pitched, with five strikeouts of his own. A&M went 4-of-26 at the plate against Williamson and relief pitcher Jake Eissler.
Following the game Saturday night, Childress said it was no surprise that Lacy and Williamson would be pitched for an extended period of time.
“Those two guys are special and fun to watch,” Childress said. “[Williamson] does it awfully easy and made it look easy for the first three or four innings. He got into a little bit of a jam but got it right back and got them deep in the game.”
The most dominant performance from the mound came on Friday night as junior pitcher John Doxakis only allowed one run and four hits while striking out 12 hitters against Baylor.
A&M used the momentum generated by Doxakis to explode for four runs at the plate in the fourth inning, propelling the Aggies to their first win of the weekend 5-2.
A&M returns to Blue Bell Park on Tuesday to face off with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and the game will be televised on SEC Network+.