The No. 2 Texas A&M baseball team fell to the visting UT-Arlington Mavericks Tuesday night, failing to capitalize on a myriad of opportunities and ending up on the wrong side of the 3-2 final score. The loss to the Mavericks was the teams first Tuesday night loss of the season.
We left a small village out there on the bases tonight, head coach Rob Childress said. Ten guys on base. One for ten with runners in scoring position. Thirteen flyball outs. When you do that, you usually get what you deserve, and thats a loss. And thats what we got tonight.
The Aggies werent able to get their leadoff batter on base after the third inning.
It is important for what we want to do, but they had left handers in there through six innings, and thats gonna slow us down at first, insofar as being down and not trying to give up outs on the bases, Childress said. But [a lead off hit] is a big part of everybodys offense, and for us its extremely important. But we feel like weve got a good enough lineup, one through nine, that we can string three or four hits together. We just werent able to do that tonight.
The Aggies struck first with a solo home run by sophomore center fielder Brandon Wood in the bottom of the second, a 390-foot bomb, but the Mavericks responded with two runs of their own in the top of the fourth on the strength of a walk and three consecutive singles.
Freshman pitcher Gandy Stubblefield lasted ceded two runs and five hits in four innings of work, and, after freshman pitcher Daniel Mengdens earned run, corralled the Mavs for the rest of the evening.
I thought they all did a pretty good job, Childress said of his pitching staff. With the exception of us not being able to finish the fifth inning with two outs and nobody on, I thought for the most part Gandy was very good and the other guys behind [freshman pitcher Daniel] Mengden were really good.
Senior second baseman Scott Arthurs fourth inning base knock brought in sophomore catcher Troy Stein, who reached base on his second double of the evening. Steins run was then matched by another UT-Arlington score to push the away teams advantage to 3-2. Stein finished the night 2-of-4 at the plate.
Im just getting comfortable, Stein said. You know, letting the game slow down, getting comfortable, and just taking care of the little things. As the game slows down, its getting easier and easier.
The Aggies will have to bounce back from the midweek loss for this weekends series against the Jayhawks in Lawrence, Kan.
Theyll get back on track, said senior communication major Claire Toney. Our weekend starters are so strong, I really feel like they can get the team back in the win column.