After losing its last two weekend series in Game 3 decisions, Texas A&M baseball faced a rubber match against Kentucky to try and right the ship.
Powered by an explosive offense and the second cycle for the Aggies in just two weeks, the maroon and white downed the Wildcats 17-3 and won the series on Saturday, April 9 at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
Sophomore third baseman Ryan Targac began his cycle campaign with a single in the bottom of the fourth inning, from which he would score off via three separate wild pitches and bring A&M to a 3-1 lead. The inning continued with four more runs for the Aggies and opened the floodgates for the dominant day from their bats.
“Guys are looking to advance bases; that’s part of our offense, to get those extra 90 feet. We call them roughnecks,” A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “It was a complete game. It was very well played. I know that we had a couple of errors in there, but one of them was a pretty tough ball. We got good starting pitching and I thought that [Will] Johnston and [Wyatt] Tucker threw well, so that is exactly what we needed.”
Junior right-handed pitcher Micah Dallas started the game and struck out five batters in seven innings pitched and allowed three runs en route to the win. Dallas was credited with the win — his first in SEC play — advancing his season record to 4-1. 
“That was so much fun,” Dallas said. “I have been waiting for it for a couple weeks now, but I mean, just being able to go out there and have the offense put on a show. This was a fun baseball game.”
Targac continued his work for the cycle with a two-run home run in the fifth inning, a two-RBI triple in the sixth and an RBI double in the eighth. Two of the contributing at-bats to the feat were hit from the right side of the plate and two from the left side.
“I have been doing that since day one, ever since I could hold a bat in my hand I have been switch-hitting,” Targac said. “It is my first career cycle, so it’s an awesome feeling.”
Targac’s 4-for-5 night was joined by graduate left fielder Dylan Rock who hit 2-for-3 with a triple and a home run, and was walked twice. In total, A&M’s bats collected 14 hits — three fewer than the first two games of the series combined — to Kentucky’s five for the day.
“[We were] just staying on the ball and seeing the ball,” Rock said. “Everybody is up there competing, and we were just able to see the ball better today.”
With the win, A&M’s season record improves to 19-12 as the team breaks even in conference play at 6-6 with two series wins and two losses. The Aggies will go on the road to A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. before heading to Georgia for another Thursday, Friday, Saturday series. 
“It doesn’t get softer, that’s for sure. Go on the road, a five-hour bus drive to Corpus and then fly to Georgia, who’s been playing really high-level baseball,” Schlossnagle said. “But, we really needed to win a series, that’s what I told the team yesterday. You want to win them all, but most of the series in this conference are going to come down to somebody winning on that third day, so we definitely needed that.”