Maybe it was the weather delays or just something in the air, but for the first time this season the No. 1 Texas A&M baseball team showed signs of mortality Sunday against the visiting Razorbacks.
In the series’ decisive finale, the Aggies were unable to overcome an opening inning in which they dug themselves into an early 6-0 hole en route to a lopsided 8-2 defeat. Sunday sealed the first series loss for the Aggies (35-5, 12-5 SEC).
The Aggies were able to score twice after loading the bases in the bottom of the second and sixth innings, but were never able to fully capitalize on their opportunities. In the second, J.B. Moss brought in the Aggies’ first run with sac fly to deep left center only to have Barash ground into a fielder’s choice on the next play to end the inning. Moss drove in the Aggies’ second run in similar fashion in the sixth with a blooper to right field.
“They grabbed the momentum immediately with the big first inning and we weren’t able to respond,” said head coach Rob Childress. “We had a couple of opportunities, but baseball is a funny game, it’s a game of inches. Moss put a pretty good swing on [that pitch in the second] and if it gets out of here, who knows how the game turns out. But give Arkansas a lot of credit. Their backs were against the wall and they answered the bell.”
The loss came hours after A&M gave up six unanswered runs in the last three rescheduled innings of the postponed game two. The back-to-back defeats on Sunday are the first consecutive losses for the Aggies all year. Arkansas (24-17, 9-9 SEC) is the first team to defeat A&M in a three-game series this season.
“We show up [for game two] and have a five run lead and nine outs to go and all of the momentum,” Childress said. “But Arkansas did a great job of taking that away from us there in the 8th inning when they scored five runs with two outs.”
Sophomore outfielder Nick Banks, who went two for three at the plate in the finale, said the losses sting, but said the team will have a chance to rebound in Tuesday’s 2 p.m. home matchup against UT-Arlington.
“The response against UTA will really show a lot about our team and how we’re going to respond later in the year as well,” Banks said. “We haven’t lost back-to-back games yet, so we’ll be looking for a big turnaround on Tuesday.”
