Texas A&M baseball had its back against the wall as the Aggies headed to Baton Rouge this past weekend to face No.6 LSU following a tough start to conference play. The maroon and white were riding on a short two-game winning streak and needed to use their momentum to take a series over the Tigers at the hostile Alex Box Stadium. Fortunately, A&M did just that, finding key performances from guys who had been dealing with recent struggles.
Masterful outing from Brigham Hill in game one
In his previous three starts, Brigham Hill had hit bumps in the road. Searching for answers and trying to get back to early season form, the junior right-hander was now handed the tall order of facing a stout LSU lineup.
Hill dominated his game one appearance, tossing eight scoreless innings, striking out seven batters with just two walks and did not allow a single LSU hitter to advance into scoring position in a 4-0 win over the Tigers.
The A&M hitters backed Hill’s dominant outing as Nick Choruby blasted a two-run homer in the fifth and Cole Bedford knocked a two-RBI single in the ninth, giving the Aggies insurance.
LSU offense comes to life in game two
While the Tiger offense was tamed in game one, but the LSU hitters caught fire in game two in a 7-4 win.
The Tigers broke the game open in the third, getting four consecutive hits to take a 3-0 lead. Antoine Duplantis recorded an RBI single to left field and Kramer Robertson followed with a two-RBI double down the left field line.
After plating another run in the fifth on Josh Smith’s single, Walker Pennington belted a two-run homer to left field in the top of the seventh, cutting LSU’s lead to 5-2. In the bottom half of the seventh, Robertson and Greg Deichmann responded with back-to-back homers to push the Tigers’ lead back to five.
A&M tried to rally in the ninth, but its efforts were not enough. Cole Bedford hit a two-run homer with two outs however, Braden Shewmake grounded out to second on the next at-bat to end the game.
A&M uses two-out rally in ninth to take rubber match
With two outs in the top of the ninth A&M found itself down three runs and stared defeat square in the eye.
Walker Pennington – who entered the game in the seventh – conjured a little magic, blasting a three-run homer over the left field stands to put the Aggies up 4-3 – a lead they would not relinquish.
On the previous at-bat, Hunter Coleman belted a grounder up the middle to score Joel Davis from second and keep the game alive for A&M.
Mitchell Kilkenny closed the bottom of the ninth for A&M, sitting the Tigers down in order to pick up the save and gave the Aggies an impressive road series win over LSU.
Corbin Martin threw a career-high eight innings, allowing three runs on just four hits and struck out five.
A&M returns to action this Tuesday when it hosts Dallas Baptist in the first home game in two weeks. First pitch is set for 6:32 p.m. and will be broadcast on SEC Network Plus.