The No. 12 Texas A&M baseball team welcomed No. 5 Ole Miss to Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park on Friday and took game two of the series 7-6 after falling in a close one on Thursday in game one of the series 5-4.
“None of them are easy, I can promise you that,” head coach Rob Childress said. “Certainly playing a great Ole Miss team tonight and we knew they weren’t going to go away. We set their four-run inning up for them and were fortunate to close it out.”
A&M kicked off the scoring in the second inning when freshman first baseman Will Frizzell blasted a deep home run to right-center that scored sophomore designated hitter Hunter Coleman. Then, three walks loaded the bases for the Aggies before junior second baseman Michael Helman hit a groundball that the Ole Miss shortstop threw past the first baseman, allowing two Aggie runners to score. The Aggies would add one more in the fifth on a Coleman ground out, and then two more in the seventh on a Coleman single with the bases loaded.
Ole Miss started their scoring in the fourth when the Rebels’ Will Golsan doubled home the runner from first. The Rebels then scored their second run on a seventh inning RBI single. Then, pinch-hitter Michael Fitzsimmons launched a grand slam off the scoreboard in the eighth making A&M a bit nervous, but the combination of Aggie pitchers Nolan Hoffman and Kaylor Chafin shut out the Rebels in the ninth for the win.
“It’s big to bounce back,” Helman said. “Coach talked about toughness before the game. I mean, that eighth inning was a scare, but I knew that we were going to come out on top in the end.”
The Aggie offense was led by Frizzell, Helman, and Coleman. Frizzell went 1-4 with 2 RBIs on the monster home run, Helman went 3-5 with an RBI and two runs scored, and Coleman went 2-4 with three RBIs. Aggie sophomore starting pitcher John Doxakis was great again today for A&M as he tossed six and two-thirds innings, giving up just one earned run on eight hits and struck out seven.
“Yesterday obviously didn’t go like we wanted it,” Doxakis said. “You’ve got to keep the ball down against Ole Miss, they’re a really good hitting team with lots of big bats in the lineup. My slider was definitely effective tonight, I knew coming into today I had to have that pitch.”
The Ole Miss offense was led by designated hitter Chase Cockrell, pinch-hitter Michael Fitzsimmons, and second baseman Jacob Adams. Cockrell went 3-3 with two runs scored, Fitzsimmons had one at bat in which he launched a grand slam, and Adams went 2-4 with an RBI.
The Aggies and Rebels will battle on Saturday to determine the winner of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Blue Bell Park.