Texas A&M baseball entered Tuesday’s midweek matchup with Texas State in the midst of a six-game skid that began against Missouri almost two weeks ago. At the start of the season, the pitching staff was a huge part of the team’s success, but over the losing streak opposing teams have averaged nearly seven runs per game. Conversely, the A&M offense has slumped recently, averaging only 3.5 runs per game over the last 11 days.
After the Game 3 loss to Alabama on Sunday, coach Rob Childress said the entire team was disappointed with how things have gone, but he has remained positive in the hope that everyone can get back to how they felt just a short period of time ago.
“Ten days ago we were in a good place mentally as a team,” Childress said. “The sooner we can get back to that place, the better we are going to be.”
The Aggies were ultimately able to get back in that mental state in an all-around solid 8-4 win over the Bobcats thanks to a solid outing from Jonathan Childress and two-hit games from Ray Alejo, Brett Minnich, Trevor Werner, and big hits from Kalae Harrison and Austin Bost.
Jonathan Childress, a sophomore, would be the man on the bump for the first time since a week ago against Sam Houston State. Entering Tuesday, he had given up at least one run in his last seven appearances.
Rob Childress said after the win that he was proud of the guys for sticking in there and doing all of the little things right like traveling right and having a good pregame routine with the right frame of mind.
“I felt great about our pregame, our attitude and the way the guys are going about their business,” Rob Childress said. “They’re doing things the right way and usually teams that do that end up getting paid back.”
After a scoreless first frame, the Aggies broke through in the second starting with a Trevor Werner bases-loaded single with no outs that scored Minnich for the first run of the night. Catcher Taylor Smith worked a walk to bring home another run, and Kalae Harrison proceeded to bring home Werner and Logan Sartori with a base hit down the left field line.
Werner said he capitalized on his opportunity to play on Tuesday by being mentally prepared and also thinks that being a team player while not playing is an important part of that.
“It’s all about having your opportunity and being ready for it,” Werner said. “And just being a good teammate too — when you’re being a good teammate you get paid back so that’s a big part of it.”
A&M held its 4-0 lead into the bottom of the fourth when Texas State got on the scoreboard with a RBI single on an 0-2 count to cut the Aggies’ lead to three. Then Jonathan Childress balked, which allowed another Bobcat to cross home, making it a 4-2 ballgame entering the middle innings.
He was able to collect the last outs to get out of the inning which marked the end of his day. The southpaw threw four full innings and allowed two hits, one earned run, walk a pair and struck out six Bobcats. Alex Magers relieved him and pitched clean fifth and sixth innings.
The maroon and white made up for those two Texas State runs quickly as Will Frizzell drew a two-out walk in the top of the fifth and was followed up by a two-run blast off the bat of Austin Bost. It was the junior’s sixth home run of the season which gives him the second most on the team behind Frizzell, who has 11.
Texas State was able to scratch across another run a few innings later on a bases-loaded two-out walk, but A&M’s Werner came through with his second hit and second RBI of the night on a double into right-center in the next inning to get back the run and make the score 7-3.
Rob Childress said although the bullpen struggled at times with giving up free bases, he was proud of how they managed to work out of those situations by limiting damage.
“We’ve got to have some other guys we can go to [out of the pen] and we created some problems for ourselves,” Rob Childress said. “But I think the thing I’m most proud of is we got ourselves out of some problems.”
Once again the Bobcats would bring home a run on a bases-loaded two-out walk for their fourth and final run of the evening. And Frizzell was able to get that run back right after when he brought home Harrison with a sac fly for A&M’s eighth run as the final score read 8-4. Eight runs is the most the Aggies have scored in a game since their last win which was a 16-2 blowout of Missouri.
The Aggies will be right back in the gauntlet this weekend as they travel to Fayetteville to do battle with the No. 1 Arkansas Razorbacks who are 27-5 and 17-3 at home this season with a 9-3 conference record. A&M earned it’s 20th win of the year on Tuesday as they now own a 20-15 record.
First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium. Game two will begin at the same time Saturday night before the series concludes on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. All three games will be on SEC Network+.