The Texas A&M lineup showed Sunday why it is a pitcher’s nightmare in a 14-6 win over the Missouri Tigers to take the weekend series win.
The wins over the weekend place the Aggies atop the western division in the SEC. Also, with LSU losing this weekend, the Aggies might find themselves at No. 1 in most, if not all, major baseball polls come Monday afternoon.
“Well, we are off to a really good start,” said A&M head coach Rob Childress. “Today we found something out about our team. We hadn’t been in this situation before where we are playing to win a series on Sunday. We responded quite well. So far, so good. I am proud of our guys and the new month will start for us on Tuesday.”
The series got started Friday night in front of a record crowd of 7,391 at Olsen Field, the largest crowd since the stadium underwent renovations in 2012. A&M overcame a sixth inning charge by Missouri with four runs of its own to earn a 7-4 win to start the series.
Aggie starter Grayson Long had a good night, surrendering only three earned runs, but Andrew Vinson came in behind him to effectively shut down Missouri (20-9, 6-3 SEC). Vinson pitched three innings of scoreless baseball out of the bullpen to earn the win on the night.
Saturday saw a different outcome. The Aggies (27-2, 7-2 SEC) took an early 2-0 lead, but Missouri responded with two runs to tie the game at 2-2 all the way until the eighth inning, when Missouri smashed a ball down the line to left field to score a runner and give the Tigers a 3-2 advantage. The Aggies threatened in the ninth inning, but could not get the ball to bounce their way and lost their first home game of the season. Kyle Simonds made his first career start on the mound, working five innings, allowing only three hits and two unearned runs.
After its first loss of the season, A&M responded with an 11-run outburst at UTSA. Sunday, the Aggies had a nine-run sixth inning to propel them to a 14-6 victory. A&M had three home runs in the ballgame, including a grand slam from Logan Taylor during the sixth inning surge.
The Aggie lineup had many stars, led by Mitchell Nau and Logan Taylor, who each had four RBIs on the day. Nau also hit his first home run of the season. On the mound, junior Matt Kent had a stellar outing, as he worked six innings, surrendering seven hits but keeping the Missouri lineup scoreless.
“Clearing we don’t like losing,” said Logan Nottebrok after the game. “Everytime we lose a game, we come back and show up ready to play. They call this championship Sunday. Championship games are ready to play on Sunday. We could easily have turned it down and went about our business. We came out strong. You know you have to win Sunday games to compete in the SEC.”
The overall attendance for the weekend was 18,776, which is the most for a weekend series since the Blue Bell renovations in 2012, and was the fifth-highest weekend attendance in Olsen Field history. The Aggies will return home on Tuesday to take on the Sam Houston State Bearkats.
