This time last year, Texas A&M baseball found itself absent from the SEC Tournament after a devastating 9-21 conference record. Now, the Aggies find themselves in the driver’s seat of the competition with a chance to win the “damn thing”.
The last time it faced the Crimson Tide, A&M fell short in the series 2-1 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. On May 27, the No. 2 seeded Aggies took down No. 11 seed Alabama 12-8 with a late, but dominant, performance from the bats in front of a crimson-red crowd.
After the shutout win against Florida on May 26 in the second round of the SEC Tournament, many believed the momentum would carry over to today’s SEC matchup.
Wrong.
A&M had one of its worst baseball performances with a series of unfortunate events to start the game.
“First three innings, that’s about as ugly of baseball as we’ve played all season,” A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “As [is] typical for our team, we’ve played from behind so much nobody ever panics.”
Ace sophomore pitcher Nathan Dettmer was only able to throw against the opposing lineup for one inning before getting pulled in the second, and the maroon and white defense gave up five errors and six runs in the first four innings, facing their largest deficit of the night at 6-1.
The tables finally turned in favor of the Aggies when a Sugarland native stepped in the box. Graduate left-fielder Dylan Rock hit a three-run homer to cut the deficit to two.
“Dylan Rock,” Alabama coach Brad Bohannon said. “He’s scary.”
The runs continued to roll in after the spark set by Rock.
In the top of the sixth, graduate shortstop Kole Kaler tied the game for A&M with a two-RBI single. Kaler paid another visit to the box and hit another RBI single and extended a one-run lead to two.
Sophomore third baseman Trevor Werner joined in on the fun with a three-run moon blast to give the Aggies their largest lead of the night at 11-6.
At the end of the night, A&M secured the 12-8 lead with the help of 11 hits, nine two-out RBIs and nine total strikeouts.
The Aggies will play the winner of Florida-Alabama on Saturday, May 28, at 4:30 p.m. in Hoover, Ala., at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
