Texas A&M baseball entered the Round Rock Classic with a 2-3 record looking to string together a few wins against power five opponents, and on Friday night the Aggies aimed to continue a three-game win streak against Baylor with senior Dustin Saenz taking the mound in his second season appearance.
The first inning went scoreless as Saenz struck out two Bears in the bottom half as only one man got on base via an error. Then in the top of the second inning the Aggies found the scoreboard on a two-run home run by senior catcher Mikey Hoehner. It was his third career home run in maroon and white and his first of this season.
Two innings later A&M found home twice on a pair of singles from Bryce Blaum and Will Frizzell and two errors by the Baylor defense. Saenz allowed no hits until the bottom of the fourth when Baylor logged a pair of hits and a run with Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo’s two-out RBI single. Saenz limited the damage though and kept it a 4-1 game with the game heading into the fifth inning.
Childress said his pitching staff of Saenz, Chandler Jozwiak, and Chris Farrell did well in the win and helped keep up the momentum in the Aggies’ dugout.
“Our pitching staff was outstanding, all three guys went out tonight and were on the attack,” Childress said. “They minimized all the damage from Baylor and kept the momentum in our dugout the entire nine innings.”
The Aggies’ offense continued to get timely hits when Blaum brought home Hoehner on a single and error by the Baylor center fielder. Sophomore Brett Minnich followed Blaum up with an RBI single, and then Frizzell cleared the bases with a two-out, two-run home run to right-center to cap off the five-run inning. After tonight’s 3-5, 2 RBI, one home run performance Frizzell is hitting .417 on the year.
“Some wins are not going to be the prettiest wins, some are going to have to be ugly,” Frizzell said. “That one today had a lot of two-out runs and that really was the difference.”
Baylor’s offense kept up the pace though with consecutive one-run fifth and sixth innings and knocked Saenz out of the game in the bottom of the sixth with the score at 9-3. Jozwiak relieved Saenz and got a strikeout to strand one man in scoring position.
The Aggies scratched across two more in the top of the eighth inning on a two-run, two-out single by Zane Schmidt to make it 11-3. Two-out runs were a trademark of both teams tonight as they showed their ability to battle with the odds stacked against them.
“We certainly got some big two-out hits and nine two-out runs,” Childress said.
Baylor’s Kyle Harper hit a solo homer in the bottom half off of Jozwiak four Baylor’s fourth and final run of the night.
A&M’s scoring continued in the top of the ninth with a Minnich sac-fly for the 12th run of the night before Farrell came onto the mound for the bottom half and closed things down to give the Aggies their third win of the year by a score of 12-4.
Childress said aggression was a big part of the team’s success tonight against Baylor.
“I was very proud of the aggression we played with tonight,” Childress said. “Up and down the lineup, guys were willing to do what it takes to set up innings.”
First pitch on Saturday is set for 6 p.m. against Oklahoma from Dell Diamond. Junior Bryce Miller will be on the mound for the Aggies as they go for their third straight win.