Texas A&M baseball’s weekend series loss against Kentucky proved that the Aggies’ bats are capable of getting hot in short spurts. 

In Sunday’s 10-5 loss, both teams showcased the duality of baseball. Periods of red-hot hitting gave way to a duel between fired-up pitchers. 

As the early-afternoon gloom transitioned to sunshine, A&M’s offense did the opposite. An early two-run first inning gave it an early lead before falling dormant for the rest of the game. 

Sophomore designated hitter Caden Sorrell showed no signs of fatigue after his two-hit debut, where his first at-bat back was a two-run bomb into the Kentucky bullpen. The Highland Village native sparked the Aggies’ two-run first inning with an RBI single that sent junior center fielder and home run king Jace LaViolette through home plate. 

Sorrell played a major role in the Maroon and White’s 2024 College World Series run. He posted a .275 average with 50 hits, 44 runs, 24 RBIs and 11 home runs in his impressive freshman season. Getting him back after missing extended time due to injury may have been the piece the Aggies needed to right the ship going down the stretch in 2025. 

The 5,643 members of the 12th Man in attendance fell quiet in the top of the second inning as the Wildcats terrorized junior left-handed pitcher Myles Patton. Big Blue plated three runners in the frame, with two of them coming off bunts that went straight to Patton. Unfazed, he recovered and struck out Kentucky freshman shortstop Tyler Bell to limit the damage. 

A&M’s batters did Patton no favors once it was their turn in the inning. Kentucky sophomore LHP Ben Cleaver made quick work of the side, going three-up-three-down. The short rest gave Patton no issues, as he led the Fightin’ Farmers out and returned the favor in the third. 

Patton’s shove day came to an end when he was pulled after hitting a batter in the fifth inning. The lefty finished with 84 total pitches, three strikeouts, a walk, eight hits and four runs. 

“I’m not going to say anything about giving up hits, throwing strikes,” coach Michael Earley said. “The worst thing you can do is try to scare a pitcher out of the strike zone.”

A&M’s disaster of an inning continued before sophomore LHP Kaiden Wilson managed to record a strikeout to stop the bleeding. Kentucky scored four runs in the frame, ballooning the lead to 8-2. 

Cleaver continued on the mound well into the sixth inning for the Wildcats. Known as The Slim Reaper, he was limited in 2024 due to injuries, but against the Aggies, Cleaver set a career-high for pitches with 105, surpassing his 88 thrown at Georgia earlier this season. He finished his stellar performance with seven strikeouts, three hits, two runs, two walks and two hit-by-pitches.

A&M’s bats woke up in the seventh when junior second baseman Ben Royo knocked a double into left-center field. Senior first baseman Gavin Kash was walked before freshman phenom right fielder Terrance Kiel II tripled to add two to the Aggies’ score and cut the Wildcat lead to four.

Kiel’s blazing speed has been quite the addition for the Aggies. As a junior in high school, Kiel posted a 6.31 second 60-yard dash at an event hosted by Perfect Game. For reference, the average 60-yard dash for Division I players is in the 6.7-6.9 second range, and in the 6.5-6.7 second range for major-leaguers, according to TheBattingDonut.com. Kiel has used his wheels to steal seven bases, the most on the team.

The Maroon and White’s comeback hopes were crushed in the eighth inning when Kentucky freshman 1B Hudson Brown sent a shot to his guys in the bullpen. With the bases loaded, another run scored to increase Big Blue’s lead to five. 

Late in the game, Kash stretched to make an impressive play at first before hobbling off the field, grabbing his leg. He would not return.

“I believe he pulled his hamstring,” Earley said. “We’ll evaluate him after the game and then see it tomorrow, and see what we got with him moving forward.”

Sophomore 1B Blake Binderup tried to rally the troops and get something going offensively, but his efforts fell by the wayside. 

The matchup came to an early end after the eighth inning due to a travel curfew put in place by the SEC, which added some extra stress on top of the Aggies. The Wildcats seemed to have been playing the rule to their advantage, stalling to reach the time limit.

“You can play cleaner baseball,” Earley said. “You should be able to play that game, but this wasn’t the case.”

The Aggies will return to Olsen Field on Tuesday when they host Incarnate Word before traveling to Knoxville for a rematch of the 2024 College World Series Final with No. 1 Tennessee.