The Texas A&M baseball team continued their momentum on Friday night, defeating Penn State 9-3 behind four Aggie home runs.
A&M head coach Rob Childress was impressed with his team’s effort on what was a windy night.
“I am very proud of them” said. Childress. “On a day like today where the winds blowing out at 20 miles an hour, it would have been real easy to pull the ball and have a frustrating night. Our approach was outstanding from one through nine in the lineup.”
Nick Banks helped the attack, going 2-for-3 with four RBI. He and his team knew that they had to take a solid approach for the game even with the heavy winds.
“Coach preaches approach to us,” Banks said. “A lot of guys came out when it was blowing and got excited, but it was all business when we got to batting practice. We stayed with our approach.”
The Aggies (5-0) starting pitcher for the night, A.J. Minter, lasted five innings and allowed two hits and zero earned runs while striking out nine Nittany Lion batters. He got out of jams all night long, as Penn State batted 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
In the first inning, A&M took a 2-0 lead on a two-run single by Banks. Blake Allemand lead-off the bottom of the second inning with a home run to extend the Aggie lead to 3-0.
Banks kept his bat hot, and in the third inning drove in two more runs on a double to push the A&M lead to 5-0. Logan Nottebrok hit his first home run of the year, a two-run blast in the fifth inning to make it a 7-0 A&M lead. Logan Taylor and JB Moss joined the home run frenzy, both hitting solo shots that made it a 9-3 A&M lead.
The Aggies have now hit 10 home runs in their first five games. Last year, A&M did not hit their ninth home run until the 22nd game of the season. They are 5-0 for the first time since 2012.
The second game of the weekend series will take place on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is set for 2:05pm.