On March 27, 2022, history was made in the stands of Olsen Field rather than on the diamond.
Texas A&M baseball lost the third game of its three-game series against Auburn 13-9, concluding the series and marking its first SEC series loss of the season. The Aggies finished the game with eight hits, zero errors and five strikeouts total from the mound.
The three-game series against the conference foe had a total attendance of 19,622, with 5,828 fans at Game 3 alone. This marks the highest three-game series attendance at Blue Bell Park since it opened 44 years ago.
The Aggies got off to a hot start in the bottom of the first after an RBI pop fly from junior second baseman Austin Bost and a two-RBI single from third baseman Ryan Targac.
The two teams alternated three-point innings until the bottom of the third when the score stood at 6-6 heading into the fourth inning.
A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle had the bullpen phone on speed dial after a rough start from freshman lefty Ryan Prager, who only threw 2.1 innings and gave up six runs. There was not much help from the next five arms who gave up a total of eight hits, seven runs and only put together two strikeouts.
“As you saw today, I tried to give some guys some other opportunities,” Schlossnagle said. “We are going to have to continue to do that. We can’t keep going back to the same guys or somebody else is going to get hurt.”
After putting together seven runs and five hits in the first four innings, the Aggies’ bats seemed to cool down as they were only able to get three more hits and two runs, one coming in the bottom of the ninth after all hope of winning went out the door, along with the majority of the fans.
Graduate shortstop Kole Kaler led the team in hits and runs scored with two, and graduate left fielder Dylan Rock led the maroon and white in RBIs with three and formulated the team’s only home run of the game in the bottom of the second to give the Aggies an early 6-3 lead.
Despite playing well, Kaler said he was disappointed in his and the team’s performance in their last game of the series against Auburn.
“You have to put together in all three areas,” Kaler said. “You need to pitch, you need to play good defense, you need timely hitting in this league to win. We did not have all three today, so that is why we didn’t win the game.”
A&M will travel to Austin in hopes of finding its third-consecutive win against No. 2 ranked Texas on March 29 at 6:30 p.m. at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.