The No. 14 Texas A&M baseball team welcomed Texas State to Blue Bell Park on Tuesday night for a midweek match up. The game was back and forth throughout, but the Aggies came out victorious in the end with a 7-5 win. With the win, the A&M improves to 28-9 (8-7 SEC) and the Bobcats fall to 20-16-1 with the loss.
“It was a hard fought game,” A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “Texas State is coming off a good weekend and they’re feeling really confident. It was a back and forth heavyweight fight. A lot of punches thrown tonight, especially from the first round on.”
Texas State started the scoring in the first with a two run home run, but the Aggies quickly answered in the bottom of the inning.
Sophomore first baseman Hunter Coleman doubled to score a run before junior designated hitter Chandler Morris singled to score two runs in the bottom of the first. State then tied it up at 3 with an RBI groundout in the top of the second.
Next, the A&M regained the lead thanks to a Texas State error. The Bobcats would tie it up again in the fourth on an RBI single before junior third baseman George Janca blasted a deep home run to left field to give A&M the 5-4 lead.
TXST tied it up again in the seventh on an RBI single. A&M would then regain the lead in the seventh on a Coleman triple before junior center fielder Allonte Wingate tripled to give A&M an insurance run in the eighth.
Junior closer Nolan Hoffman came into the ninth and snagged the save as the Aggies took the win.
“I definitely felt good tonight,” Coleman said. “We were all over the barrel all night and we played good defense and had good pitching, so that definitely helps out. We don’t really care about numbers, if we’re having quality at bats and producing then it doesn’t matter what the numbers say.”
The Bobcat offense was led by junior second baseman Jonathan Ortega, freshman third baseman Dalton Shuffield, and junior first baseman Ryan Newman. Ortega went 2-4 with 2 RBIs, Shuffield 3-4 with a run scored, and Newman went 2-4 with an RBI.
The A&M offense was led by Coleman, sophomore left fielder Logan Foster, and sophomore shortstop Braden Shewmake. Coleman went 3-4 with 2 RBIs and a run scored, Foster went 2-4 with a run scored, and Shewmake went 2-2 with two runs scored.
“We came out and did a good job offensively,” Shewmake said. “We played good defense and our pitching came around with us. We have so much confidence in every guy we roll out on the mound. It was a back and forth game, but we had a lot of confidence in the dugout that we were going to pull through.”
The Aggies will be back in action this weekend as they travel to Tennessee to take on the Volunteers in SEC play. Game one is scheduled for Friday at 5:30 p.m.