The Texas A&M baseball team came away with a 3-1 victory over Mississippi State in the opening contest of the weekend Friday night at Olsen Field under Grayson Long’s seven innings and a home run from Logan Taylor.
“Great crowd. It was a close game form start to finish,” A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “Grayson has been good a lot this year, and I thought he was as good tonight as he has been all year long…he set the tone for the night and the bullpen did a great job at the end of the game.”
The gloves were flashed early and often, as both teams made numerous impressive defensive stops, making it a scoreless slugfest until the fourth inning. After Nick Banks got on base, Logan Taylor hit his seventh home run of the season to the scoreboard in left center field to surge A&M out in front 2-0. The Aggies (32-2, 10-2 SEC) now have 16 home runs during the span of their six game win streak.
“I was just trying to put a good swing on a ball in the zone,” Taylor said about his two-run homer. “He left a couple over the plate, but he had been pitching good. I just got lucky I guess.”
After loading the bases in the fifth inning, a sacrifice fly from team RBI leader Mitchell Nau gave A&M the 3-0 lead.
Mississippi State (21-15, 5-8 SEC) earned the run back in the sixth inning on an Aggie error that would have ended the inning to cut the advantage to 3-1, but the Aggie pitching staff kept the Bulldogs quiet the rest of the way.
Grayson Long was a machine on the mound for A&M. He pitched 116 pitches through seven innings of work, allowing one unearned run on only three hits while also tallying four strikeouts on the evening. At one point in the night, Long set down 10 Bulldog batters in a row. Behind him, the bullpen shut down the Bulldogs, and Mark Ecker earned his sixth save of the season in the win.
“My fastball and slider felt really good,” Long said. “My changeup was the best it has felt all year. The offense we have right now, it’s kind of easy to do your thing and not worry about being perfect.”
A&M has now won the its last three meetings with Mississippi State, and the win moves the Aggies to 24-1 at home this season. The series continues on Saturday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 pm.
