HOUSTON, TX — Sophomore pitcher Asa Lacy led No. 23 Texas A&M to a one-hit victory over No. 16 Texas Christian with nine strikeouts on Saturday at Minute Maid Park.
The Aggies picked up their 10th win of the season on a critical pitching error made by TCU’s Brandon Williamson in the third inning.
Lacy caught his third win of the season to go 3-0 and now boasts a 0.36 ERA after only giving up a hit in seven innings pitched. Williamson saw his first loss of the season to fall to 2-1, with five strikeouts and one earned run.
The left-hander gave credit to the A&M defense for the win after posting a .444 leadoff percentage.
“We just played incredible defense,” Lacy said. “First six out of seven leadoff hitters were on-base today and we were able to capitalize and just get some better plays and some ground balls today.”
Even though walks put TCU players on base, the Horned Frogs could not find any rhythm at the plate, recording only one hit in nine innings. TCU would finish the game 1-for-25 batting against four different A&M pitchers.
In the third, Williamson gave up the first hit of the game to senior outfielder Allonte Wingate, then progressed to walk three straight A&M batters for the only score of the contest.
A&M head coach Rob Childress said that despite Horned Frogs’ loss, both of their starting pitchers had impressive performances.
“Those two left-handers are going to pitch for an awful long time,” Childress said. “Williamson was equally as impressive as Lacy and those two guys are special and fun to watch. I thought [Lacy’s] stuff was very explosive and got the change up going at times and used the slider more than we did a week ago. I thought he was very determined today.”
Although the hits did not lead to any runs on the board, Zach DeLoach kept the pressure on TCU’s defense with a pair of hits in the fifth and eighth innings. The sophomore outfielder finished with a perfect 2-for-2 from the plate, improving his batting average to .267 on the season. Junior catcher Mikey Hoehner was the only other Aggie to register a hit on the night.
The Aggies improve to 2-0 on the weekend with two consecutive upsets over Baylor and TCU, coming off a tough loss to Incarnate Word last Wednesday.
“It’s a great feeling,” sophomore pitcher Kasey Kalich said. “Our team’s been working hard. We’ve been making this tournament, after we got done with UIW, our biggest games on the schedule because this is where we make our statement.”
Kalich was the final pitcher to see the mound on Saturday, taking over for freshman pitcher Joseph Menefee and recording a strikeout to finish the game off for the Aggies.
A&M finishes the Shriner’s College Classic on Sunday with a matchup against University of Houston. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. and will be televised on AT&T Sportsnet.