Olsen Field was bestowed a 64-degree evening as freshman RHP Luke Jackson threw the first pitch against the Houston Christian Huskies on Tuesday. And much like the weather, the result of the game for Texas A&M baseball was perfect.
The Maroon and White entered March 26’s game with a spotless 6-0 record in midweek tilts. Thanks to an electric performance from the pitching staff, the Aggies stayed perfect and landed the 6-3 win over the Huskies to improve to 22-3.
“Every single win counts,” coach Jim Schlossnagle said.
The team only allowed three runs in the ninth in an otherwise perfect performance.
The first inning was a breeze for Jackson. He retired the side in order with a pair of flyouts to center and a strikeout. Jackson’s whole performance was more of the same, as he finished his outing with 2.2 innings pitched and two strikeouts with only one hit allowed.
“Once I got out there, I felt like I was at home,” Jackson said. “I just got on a roll.”
It was after he allowed that hit in the third inning he was taken out by Schlossnagle and relieved by junior RHP Chris Cortez, who secured the final out of the third with a flyout to center.
The A&M offense was unusually quiet early on, but finally got a run across after graduate DH Hayden Schott reached on a single with the bases loaded and two gone, giving the Aggies a 1-0 lead in the home half of the third.
Schlossnagle and the Aggies continued to piece the game together with their bullpen. Freshman RHP Isaac Morton was sent to the mound in the fourth, and after running into some trouble with the bases loaded and two gone, he fanned sophomore DH Parker Edwards to end the Husky threat.
He had a much easier time in the fifth, where he tallied another strikeout and allowed no runs while facing only four batters.
After Morton, junior RHP Brad Rudis was put on the hill. He threw a pair of scoreless frames in the sixth and seventh, allowing a hit and punching out four.
The Aggies picked it up with the bats as the night continued. The team added two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth, which gave it a 5-0 lead. Its plate discipline in this game was excellent, with the team working 11 walks, including two with the bases juiced.
While A&M has homered 47 times this year, which is good for fourth-most in the SEC, it plated six runs in the game without hitting a home run.
“We had a lot of bad at-bats in there,” Schlossnagle said.
Senior RHP Brock Peery came in to close this one out in the ninth, but he loaded the bases with one out. Junior RHP Josh Stewart was sent in for cleanup duty, and despite allowing three runs to score, credited to Peery, he held off a Husky comeback to lock up the win for A&M.
The pitching staff has seemingly begun to find its groove once again. Prior to last weekend’s series against Mississippi State, A&M had allowed at least six runs in seven of 11 games. It has now gone four straight without doing so.
The Maroon and White’s next opponent will be the Auburn Tigers in a three-game series at Olsen Field beginning Thursday, March 28 at 6 p.m.
