Junior Corbin Martin took the mound Saturday afternoon to lead the Aggies to a 28-12, 10-7 SEC record and a fourth-straight SEC series. Martin advances his record to 5-2 while pushing himself to a career-long 8.0 innings pitched. The righty conceded just one earned run on six hits with 3 strike outs and a walk.
“I feel really good,” Martin said after the game. “I’m validating my starts. Earlier in the year I wasn’t throwing strikes when I wanted to be. I feel I’ve been a lot more efficient and then trusting the guys behind me to make plays and never panicking with guys on base. It’s a lot easier when you have a defense like that behind you to make plays and build confidence in my stuff. I just have to go out there and do whatever I can for this team.”
Sophomore reliever Mitchell Kilkenny earned his sixth save of the season with a scoreless ninth frame while allowing one hit.
On the offensive side of things, Texas A&M put itself on the board first in the bottom of the first inning. Senior outfielder Nick Choruby reached on an error and freshman designated hitter Logan Foster was walked to put two runners on base. Freshman Braden Shewmake singled to right field to extend his hit streak to eight games and counting. Joel Davis stepped up to the plate with full bases and hit a grounder to drive in Choruby and give the Aggies a 1-0 lead. Despite a strong opening, the Aggies were only able to string together four hits in the windy weather.
“The wind blowing in played a big factor,” Foster said. “We had a lot of guys square balls up and they just king of hung up in the air. It started right from the beginning. We focused on keeping the ball low. We decided that we’re going to have the mentality every day that we’re not going to sit down. We’re going to square up and we’re going to throw the first punch.”
The Volunteers tied things up in the top of the second before the Aggies reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the third. Shewmake batted in Choruby for his second run of the day on a grounder to first. The middle innings were fairly quiet until sophomore George Janca crossed home plate on an RBI single by Austin Homan.
“Tennessee has played extremely well over the last couple days, but we’ve been very opportunistic and very fortunate,” head coach Rob Childress said. “We left some runners out there on the base paths early, bases loaded in the first no outs and we only came away with one. Then second and third one out and we only come away with one run but we were able to extend the lead late with a big two-out hit from Austin Homan.”
The Aggies will look for their second-straight sweep in game three of the series. First pitch is slated for 1:02 pm at Olsen Field.
