The Aggies (26-12, 8-7 SEC) were carrying momentum from six straight wins and were hoping to extend that to seven in this Arlington, Texas midweek bout. The Mavericks improve to 19-17 on the season with their commitment to pitching variety through nine innings. Although normally successful in weekday games, the Aggies continue to struggle against lower-caliber competition, having attributed just three of their losses to ranked squads.
The Aggies quickly put themselves in the lead and nearly seemed to pull away before the Mavericks turned things on them even quicker. Freshman Jorge Gutierrez singled to right field in the top of the second to advance sophomore infielder George Janca across home plate. Soon after, senior Walker Pennington grounded out to short, allowing senior Joel Davis to score.
This brought about the conclusion of the Aggies’ offense and UT Arlington immediately responded with a sacrifice fly to left field in the second and two unearned runs in the bottom of the third to take the lead.
On the defensive side of things the Mavs continually had pitchers in the bullpen and rotated every couple innings to keep the Aggies on their toes. This strategy successfully kept A&M off balance and the Maroon and White were only able to find the occasional walk or pop up. They completed some singles here and there without garnering any real offense for the majority of the night. Five UTA pitchers allowed just two early runs and no extra-base hits through the entirety of the contest.
Turner Larkins made his second start of the season for the Aggies after returning from illness. He reached 50 pitches in the last midweek bout versus Abilene Christian. Tonight head coach Rob Childress was prepared to stretch Larkins to 75 pitches but retired him at a count of 71, 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 5 SO. Larkins began to lose control when he reached 60 pitches and sent several balls into the dirt, however he allowed just one earned run.
Freshman lefty John Doxakis took over for Larkins and quickly established himself on the mound. He successfully kept the Mavericks scoreless through the next 2.2 innings, conceding just 2 hits and tallying 3 strikeouts for himself on 48 pitches. Junior Cason Sherrod was the chosen closer for the evening, and he completed a perfect 1.1 innings pitched with three strikeouts and a walk.
The Aggies return to action Friday afternoon as they play host to Tennessee for their sixth SEC series. First pitch is slated for 2:00 pm in order to accommodate Muster.
