It was somewhat of an unconventional day at the ballpark, but the goal remained normal for No. 17 Texas A&M (14-3), who fended off Brown (0-6) Sunday afternoon in the completion of game two and slowly outplayed the Bears in game three to earn the sweep.
“It’s hard to win two games in a day,” Texas A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “We came out this morning and I felt like we were ready to go.”
Aggies quickly finish off game two on re-start with 3-2 win
After play was suspended on Saturday due to persistent rain with the game tied 2-2 in the ninth, A&M wasted no time finishing off Brown in a quick manner on the re-start Sunday morning.
Austin Homan worked back from a 0-2 count to draw a bases loaded walk-off walk in the bottom of the ninth, bringing home Joel Davis to seal a 3-2 win over the Bears. Davis reached base with a lead-off single and was advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Cole Bedford and a pair of walks to Blake Kopetsky and Walker Pennington.
Corbin Martin picked up where he left off Saturday, trotting back out to close the game after throwing an inning the day before. Martin was lights out, working a three up, three down top of the ninth and struck out the final two batters he faced.
Between the two days, Martin threw two perfect innings and struck out three total batters, only throwing 20 pitches.
“It was hard for us, we wanted to finish that game yesterday,” Martin said. “Our main goal today was to come out and make sure we were winning every aspect of that inning. We couldn’t hand them that game.”
Timely hits backed by phenomenal pitching seal sweep in 5-1 win in game three
In game three, A&M started slowly but worked several solid innings behind excellent pitching performances to seal a 5-1 win and a sweep over Brown.
A&M took the lead in the fifth, as Braden Shewmake punched a two-RBI single up the middle, scoring Homan and Blake Kopetsky to give the Aggies a 3-1 advantage.
Insurance was added in the eighth, as Nick Choruby hit a two-RBI double to shallow left field, scoring George Janca and Pennington. Bears left fielder Garett Delano nearly made a diving catch but fell short of the dying fly ball and allowed the two A&M runners to score as the ball rolled past him.
“Shew gave us a good two-RBI single to give us the lead,” Childress said. “Then in the eighth inning nothing going just like that, two-strike single, a hit batter, and Choruby puts one in play and we’re able to extend the lead and breathe a little bit.”
The extended lead gave way to Turner Larkins making his season debut in the ninth. After being held out the first four weeks due to a pulled lat, Larkins worked a perfect final frame, fanning the final batter of the game to seal the win.
“I think I’m a hundred percent, I’m just ready to keep going forward, keep making steps,” Larkins said. “I’ll probably get extended more as these weeks come on, but right now I’m just happy to get out there. Any role I have I’ll do it to the best of my abilities and I’ll be happy to do it.”
Rob Henry gave A&M a scare in the seventh, blasting a two-out fly ball to the left field fence, but Pennington was able to track it down and make the catch to end the inning, stranding a runner at first. The near home run would have tied the game, but starting pitcher Mitchell Kilkenny was not worried about the ball leaving the yard after watching it off the bat.
“When you’re here every day, you get a feel for how far balls are going to go and just kind of know by watching,” Kilkenny said. “A little part of me was scared, but at the same time, I knew watching Walker that it wasn’t going to go out.”
The Bears scattered eight hits on the afternoon but only got one base runner past second base all game – the lone run that scored. In fact, only four Brown base runners even reached second base, including one after the third inning.
Brown’s offensive struggles were due in large part to the exceptional outing from Kilkenny (2-0). After a tough start, the right-hander began to settle in and threw well in seven innings of work.
“I thought he got better as the game went along,” Childress said of Kilkenny’s performance. “Struggled a little bit in the first inning, had some traffic on the bases. Probably his last three innings, he was pretty special.”
Brown drew first blood in game three with a lone run in the top of the third. Sam Grigo had an RBI single to left field, scoring Willy Homza from second, but Grigo was thrown out at second by Pennington trying to stretch his hit into a double.
The Aggies knotted the game at one in the fourth as Jorge Gutierrez pushed an RBI single through the left side of the infield, scoring Shewmake from third.
A&M returns to action this Tuesday when the Aggies travel to Austin to take on Texas at UCFU Disch-Falk Field. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m.