Texas A&M baseball continues its recent string of strong offensive performances, defeating the University of Texas at Arlington 10-5 at Blue Bell Park on Tuesday.
This win gives A&M the same overall win total as SEC West-leading Arkansas. The Aggies move their overall record to 30-12-1 and 11-6-1 in the SEC, while the Mavericks fall to 28-14 on the season and 14-4 in the Sun Belt Conference.
The game began to see some offensive action in the third inning after two scoreless innings from both dugouts.
UTA struck blood first, but A&M responded immediately with a solo home run from sophomore outfielder Zach DeLoach.
DeLoach said it was important for the Aggies to be aggressive because of the storied past between the two teams.
“The past two or three years we have not beat them so I think it’s huge especially for our offense,” DeLoach said. “Our offense has not been productive as of late, especially in SEC play, I mean we’re still getting wins but it is good to see we can score double-digit runs against a quality team.”
The offensive momentum only grew into the fourth inning. Freshman infielder and outfielder Brett Brown got his first career hit and it ignited shouts of joy from the A&M bullpen. Sophomore infielder Will Frizzell followed up Brown’s hit with a single to get two Aggies on base. Freshman infielder Ty Coleman then hit a three-run home run deep into left field, building the Aggie lead to 4-1.
A&M head coach Rob Childress said Brown’s success at the plate is not a surprise after watching his performances in practice.
“When you come to watch our batting practices, Brett Brown has as good of batting practice as anybody we have,” Childress said. “He’s got a good approach, good power, a good swing and he’s certainly a good teammate.”
In the fifth, the Aggies kept their foot on the gas. Junior outfielder Logan Foster hit a single that scored DeLoach for his second run of the evening.
Although, it wasn’t just the offense who kept the Aggies in the game, but also the defense.
The Aggies maintained their staunch defensive performance until a switch at pitchers in the seventh inning.
In the seventh inning, UTA showed resilience by adding two runs on the board. A&M regrouped and made another pitching change by bringing in sophomore Bryce Miller. Miller would stop the bleeding and get the Aggies out of the inning.
The bottom of the eighth inning featured an offensive explosion from the Aggies. Coleman added onto his performance with an RBI that scored Frizzell. During the next at-bat junior Bryce Blaum would return the favor with a single to score Coleman.
The Aggies weren’t done here. As junior shortstop Braden Shewmake stepped up to the plate, recording his fourth home run of the year, securing A&M with the victory.
Coleman said that maintaining focus and a sense of pride is the reason for the recent hitting success the Aggies have encountered.
“Staying on the ball, it’s kind of what we pride ourselves in, we were on the barrel all night long,” Coleman said. “I felt very confident, confident with my swing, confident in my plan and I give all the credit to coach [Will] Bolt and him preaching taking pride in our at-bats.”
A&M moves on to conference play with a road trip to Oxford to take on Ole Miss. The series begins Thursday with the first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. The game will be televised on the SEC Network +.