Sometimes, all a team needs is home runs. And sometimes even that isn’t enough.
Texas A&M baseball found out the hard way against Missouri in Friday’s opener of the last conference series, held at Olsen Field. The Fightin’ Farmers lost 9-6 after only capitalizing off four homers as junior centerfielder Jace LaViolette pushed his season total to 17, sliding into the fifth-overall spot in the all-time program list.
A late ninth-inning surge caused by pitching errors in the relief gave the Tigers six runs to complete their comeback after trailing behind by five runs in third.
“We got out of our plan,” coach Michael Earley said. “You see guys starting to do stuff and offensively, so you try to do too much. And we got completely outside of the plan past the third inning, and we swung at balls. We swung at ball four, we got out of the way of pitches that could have hit us. And we didn’t play a complete game.”
Mizzou fell victim in its first at bat to senior left-handed pitcher Ryan Prager, who proceeded to deal a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts and a groundout.
To make his statement early, Lord Tubbington, a.k.a LaViolette, led off the lineup in the bottom of the first with a 415-feet shot past center field. Sophomore right fielder Caden Sorrell failed to replicate his teammates’ success after his own hit was robbed at the wall by sophomore center fielder Kaden Peer.
A situation in shallow right field turned ugly for the Tigers as junior shortstop Jackson Lovich and junior left fielder Brock Daniels collided in pursuit of a fly ball. After the tumble, both players were slow to get up, ultimately resulting in injury to Daniels as they ended the Aggies’ first inning terrors with the flyout.
Mizzou placed runners on the corners in the top of the second, before a single snuck by junior SS Kaden Kent as he dove for the groundout. The miss cost the Maroon and White a run as freshman third baseman Chris Patterson rounded the bases, tying the game at one.
However, before another dangerous runner at third could do any more damage, Prager settled down and showed his experience with a defiant strikeout to send the Tigers back onto the field.
After another 1-2-3 inning, courtesy of Prager, Lord Tubbington recorded his fourth multiple-home run performance of the season, sending the ball 431-feet for his second slam of the game.
‘Rattlin’ Bog’ played on a loop as sophomore 3B Wyatt Hensler went yard right after LaViolette for his 11th of the season.
With two Aggies on base, sophomore designated hitter Blake Binderup brought out the “Home Run Derby” chants from Section 203 following his three-run RBI home run hit.
Looking desperately for relief, Missouri turned to its bullpen to get out of the inning as senior right-handed pitcher Kaden Jacobi replaced freshman LHP Brady Kehlenbrink, still needing two more outs in order to escape.
The famous “ball five” chants rang out over the train tracks as Jacobi proceeded to walk the first two batters he encountered. Amid the sounds of barks and chants from the 12th Man, LaViolette returned to the plate threatening to break open the box score even more. Jacobi found some inner peace and struck out the heavy-hitter to end the bleeding, but not before going down 6-1, heading into the top of the fourth.
Mizzou breathed life into their offense in the top of the fifth after Lovich went yard with a two-run RBI swing, tipping the balance of the score, 6-3.
With runners on both sides and two outs down, Prager sat the last Tiger to send out his offense once more.
The Aggie veteran ended his night after throwing six innings and seven Ks, only giving up three runs before turning the glove over to sophomore RHP Weston Moss.
The righty reliever helped push the Fightin’ Farmers into the ninth inning, however, he didn’t finish the game as Earley pulled him after he loaded the bases with no outs.
“It wasn’t the ninth [inning],” Earley said in response to what caused the shift in the game. “It was that middle of the game where we had opportunities and we, you know, we had just really bad at-bats.”
Sophomore LHP Kaiden Wilson tried to limit the Tigers, but back-to-back RBIs gave Missouri the tying run, with the breaker sitting at third. After Kent stopped a quick ground hit, he overthrew on the attempt at home plate, allowing the Tigers to take the lead with the run.
As tides kept shifting, Wilson finally ended the inning with a groundout but not before Mizzou could complete the ninth-inning, six-run surge that put the pressure back on the Aggie hitters.
A&M continues the series with Game 2 against Missouri on Friday, at 2 p.m.
