The Aggies extended their win streak to four on Friday night as they took the first of a three-game series against Yale 12-5. A&M head coach Rob Childress said he was pleased with his team’s overall performance.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” Childress said. “Offensively tonight we were very good. I think of the 12 runs we scored tonight, nine were with two outs. A lot of big hits and a lot of gritty two-strike at-bats.”
It only took three pitches for the Aggies to take the lead when senior J.B. Moss hit a 1-1 fastball over the left field wall to make it 1-0 A&M. The Aggies were then able to bump up their lead to six by the sixth inning.
Yale got on the board in the seventh inning after loading the bases with nobody out, breaking up a no-hit bid from Vines in the process. The Bulldogs scored five in the inning, highlighted by a three run homer from Andrew Herrera.
The Aggies bounced right back in the bottom of the frame, plating four runs with two outs after a wild pitch and a two-run single from Moss followed by a bases loaded walk from Boomer White to take a stronghold on the game.
A&M starter Jace Vines – a sophomore from Prosper, Texas – was settled in from the first pitch. He retired the first nine batters faced, striking out five in the process. Vines said that getting the early 2-0 cushion in the first inning made a big difference tonight.
“It seems like any time we pitch we’re always scoring in the first inning,” Vines said. “It just changes your mindset to hurry up and get back in the dugout as quick as you can so that your offense can go do what they do and score runs all night.”
Yale was unable to produce a baserunner until the fourth inning, after Tim Degraw battled to draw a leadoff walk from Vines. The sophomore hurler was able to work out of a jam in the inning and completed the night with six innings, allowing three runs and two hits with eight strikeouts.
A&M left fielder J.B. Moss led the way offensively for the Aggies, notching five RBIs and ending up with a triple short of the cycle — including the bases loaded single up the middle in the seventh to seal the game. On the at-bat, Moss said his approach was to look at hitting it right back at the pitcher.
“[Our coaches] preach that RBIs live in the middle of the field,” Moss said. “So you have to get on top of the baseball and you have to use the whole field to get big hits in RBI spots.”
The Aggies now look to build on their winning streak in the second game of this series tomorrow as they face Yale at 2 p.m.
