It was a rough first night away from College Station for Aggie baseball in their loss to Pepperdine Friday night.
Saturday afternoon however left the Aggies feeling right at home in Malibu. Kyle Simonds’ big day on the mound helped A&M rebound with a 6-0 shutout of Pepperdine to tie their weekend series.
The bats got going in the second inning to help A&M surge ahead early. Ronnie Gideon smacked an RBI single to score George Janca to give A&M a 1-0 lead. Gideon was plated a few batters later by Boomer White which made it 2-0 Aggies after two frames.
The Aggies (6-1) loaded the bases in the fourth after drawing two walks and a single from White. Nick Choruby would ground out but one run came across and A&M took a 3-0 lead.
Walker Pennington plated an RBI in the eighth to give A&M a 4-0 lead, then Boomer White would drive him in to make it a 5-0 Aggie lead. Michael Barash cracked a solo shot in the ninth to make it a 6-0 cushion for A&M.
White finished 3-for-5 with two RBI and Barash was 2-for-5 with the one RBI from his solo homer.
The pitching staff was brilliant for A&M. Overall, they struck out 13 Waves hitters and they never got a leadoff man on base in the contest.
Simonds mowed through the Pepperdine lineup. The starter tossed seven strong innings on the mound surrendering no runs, allowing just two hits and struck out nine. He walked just one Pepperdine (3-3) hitter all day.
Behind him, Ryan Hendrix shut the door completely, pitching the final two innings and allowed just one base runner while striking out four.
Every Aggie starter reached base in the game. They out hit Pepperdine 13 to 2 and drew five walks off Pepperdine starting pitcher Kiko Garcia.
The win evens the series between the two and the rubber match will take place Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. central time. A&M will be looking for their seventh consecutive regular season non-conference series win.