Coming off a road series loss to Alabama over the weekend, Texas A&M faced one of the hottest teams in the country for an inter-state midweek matchup at Blue Bell Park.
No. 10 Texas State entered Tuesday, April 4 at 23-6 and 9-3 on the road, with a two-game sweep of Texas and series wins against Coastal Carolina and Arizona propelling the Bobcats into the midseason. The Aggies, who are now 6-1 this season against Texas schools, coasted to an 8-4 win with some more impressive hitting performances from the top of A&M’s batting order.
Sophomore first baseman Jack Moss continues to stack impressive performances in recent games after going 3-for-5 in the win and was a triple shy of his second cycle in a week.
“We expect to be able to compete against these guys,” Moss said. “When we can get things rolling on all cylinders, we are a fun team to watch, and we become a tough team to beat. It has just been a matter of consistency.”
Coach Jim Schlossnagle said every man on the field played an important role, and the ability to score runs on a high-quality team is encouraging.
“I thought everybody did the job that we needed them to do,” Schlossnagle said. “We extended the lead against a nationally ranked team that has been playing better baseball than we have. We will get through the weekend and see what we have to do as we go on.”
Each squad logged an early run in the first two frames with graduate catcher Troy Claunch grounding out and bringing home graduate outfielder Dylan Rock for the first Aggie run of the night.
Before the fourth inning came around, A&M plated a pair of two-out runs to take a 3-1 lead on the Texas State starting pitcher. The meat of the batting order, Claunch and junior outfielder Brett Minnich, each hit RBI singles.
Freshman pitcher Chris Cortez was first out of the bullpen for Schlossnagle in the third inning and delivered 2.1 scoreless innings with only one hit allowed. Cortez, who tosses his fastball in the mid-to-upper 90s, continues to be one of the most-trusted relievers for A&M.
The heart of the A&M hitters created some mayhem off sophomore Bobcat pitcher Tony Robie with a leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth, a balk and a throwing error that scored Rock with no outs. A wild pitch and a single from Minnich, plus a fielding error, scored another before a pitching change paused the action.
Minnich was strong with the bat in the fifth hole, getting three hits and a pair of RBIs in his 11th multi-hit game of 2022.
With a 5-1 lead going into the seventh inning, Moss built on the lead after an opposite-field solo shot that measured in at 395 feet. It’s the three-hole hitter’s fourth round-tripper in the past week and has hit safely in 14 of his last 16 games. Afterward, another pair of runs scored as well to stretch the difference to seven runs with two frames remaining.
The Bobcats got a second run in the eighth and an inning later put runners on with no outs off freshman righty Rawley Hector. He came out and freshman Brad Rudis entered to allow a pair of runs, but ultimately secured the ranked win by a final score of 8-4.
“This was a really good win,” Schlossnagle said. “Coach [Steven] Trout has a really good team over there.”
A&M will look to get a home SEC series win starting Thursday, April 7 at 8 p.m. against Kentucky. Games 1 and 3 will be broadcast on SEC Network with Game 2 on SEC Network+. The last time the Aggies and Wildcats met was in 2019 when A&M swept on the road in Lexington, Ky.