With one sweep already under its belt this year, Aggie baseball decided to bring out the brooms once again Sunday afternoon.
Ryne Birk’s big day at the plate and a pivotal seventh inning propelled the No. 4 Aggies to a sweep of Yale Sunday afternoon with a 10-2 win.
Once the Aggies grabbed the lead in the first inning of Friday’s game, they never relinquished it. J.B. Moss tallied five RBI in the game and Jace Vines starred on the mound for the Aggies as they held off a late Bulldog surge to earn the 12-5 win.
Saturday featured a variety of special guests in attendance, ranging from former president George H.W. Bush to former A&M president R. Bowen Loftin. The host Aggies then blanked Yale 13-0 behind RBI from eight different players.
Yale (0-3) was the first to strike Sunday afternoon, however. Alex Boos chopped a single to third base to drive in the first run and give the Bulldogs the 1-0 lead in the second inning.
Ronnie Gideon responded in the third by roping a double into left field, which scored Ryne Birk to knot the score 1-1 following three frames.
A mental lapse by A&M (11-1) allowed another run to come across. With runners on the corners, Yale’s man on first stole second and was caught in a run down for an out, but a Bulldog run crossed the plate to give Yale the 2-1 lead.
“Early, we weren’t real sharp,” A&M coach Rob Childress said. “But, we kept them close enough where we could make a run at them.”
A&M eventually took control in the seventh inning.
“We saved our best at-bats for late in the game. We had 10 amazing at-bats … we were able to run away from them,” Childress said. “[Larkins] did what he needed to do with his hold and the big boys came through at the end of the game.”
Birk then gave the Aggies the lead for good. After Michael Barash reached base on a strikeout that got past the Yale catcher, Birk cranked his first homer of the year, a two-run dinger to right, and A&M took a 3-2 lead.
Moss slapped an RBI single through the left side to make it a 4-2 game. Nick Choruby joined the fun with another run-scoring single that gave the Aggies a 5-2 cushion.
Melton added two RBI with a double down the line, and Barash achieved a groundout RBI before Birk continued his hot weekend with an RBI triple to give the Aggies a 9-2 advantage after seven. Jordan Davis added another to make it 10-2.
Birk finished 4-for-4 with three runs scored, three RBI and fell just a double short of hitting for the cycle. In two games, Birk managed three triples and was an offensive juggernaut for A&M in the series.
When the dust settled, the Aggies tallied nine runs on eight hits during the seventh frame.
“With such a good offense as we have, it is tough to give us an out to start the inning off,” Birk said. “We just took it and ran. Luckily, we got hot that inning and the rest is history.”
Aggie starter Kyle Simonds shook off a bit of rust early to put together a solid outing. The senior pitched four innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits and struck out seven.
Behind Simonds, Turner Larkins entered the game and shut down the Bulldogs to earn his first win of the year. He pitched three innings, allowing two hits and no runs.
“I felt good out there on the mound,” Larkins said. “They put a lot of balls in play … let my defense work. It was a good team win today and good team weekend.”
In total over the weekend, the Aggie bats tallied 35 runs on 46 hits. They outscored the Bulldogs 35 to 7 and were 20-for-47 (.425) from the plate with runners in scoring position.
The win is A&M’s eighth consecutive non-conference series win and their second sweep this season. A&M returns to action this Tuesday and Wednesday when they host Northwestern State for a mid-week series.
