Texas A&M baseball defeated the Rice Owls 8-3 at Olsen field in College Station on Tuesday.
The Aggies add onto their three-game win streak to improve to 18-5 on the season, while the Owls fall to 8-15 on the season and increase their losing streak to five.
Starting pitcher Chris Weber got the Aggies in the zone at the start of the game after having a 1-2-3 inning in the first.
The Aggies took that momentum and ran with it. Cam Blake was walked and advanced to third base on Mikey Hoehner’s single to right with two outs in the inning, giving third baseman Ty Coleman a perfect opportunity to get on the board with a three-run home run to left field.
“It was a huge at bat in the first inning to grab all the momentum, and for him to stay in that at bat and fight and finally get a mistake and didn’t miss it,” A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “It was giant for us.”
Coleman said he felt good going into the matchup and was excited to give A&M a lead early on.
“I was really confident today in our approach, staying on that heater, dominating the fastball and luckily snuck one out of here,” Coleman said.
In the third inning, the Owls earned their first run after Rice shortstop Trei Cruz hit a sacrifice fly to right field, allowing left fielder Aaron Beaulaurier to score from third base off a missed tag from Hoehner.
Weber exited the game throwing five total strikeouts, giving up one run, a hit and an error. Relief pitcher Chandler Jozwiak took over and was lights out for several more innings, giving up zero hits and throwing five strikeouts in two innings.
Despite his success on the mound, Jozwiak gave up three hits and two runs against Vanderbilt on Saturday.
“This past Saturday wasn’t my best, I wasn’t hitting my spots really,” Jozwiak said. “I was throwing strikes but not hitting the spots with the fastball.”
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Aggies continued to put down the throttle. With the bases loaded and two outs, right fielder Jonathan Ducoff, who leads the team in RBIs this season, singled to right field, pushing both Braden Shewmake and Bryce Blaum home to put the Aggies up 7-3 over the Owls.
The Aggies will face Kentucky this weekend in a three-game series starting on Friday at 5:32 p.m. at Kentucky Proud Park.