Entering this weekend’s Super Regional rematch with TCU, there was a lot of hype on the Aggie side – home field advantage, offensive prowess, Boomer White facing his former school and loads of momentum after sweeping their own College Station Regional.  
However, the Aggie hype train came to a screeching halt Friday night.
Three-run third and fifth innings, which included a three-run monster shot from Luken Baker, combined with Jared Janczak’s splendid night on the mound propelled TCU to an 8-2 game one win over Texas A&M Friday night.
“TCU played very well tonight…their guys settled in and did a nice job,” A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “Give TCU hitters credit; they did a great job competing with two strikes.”
TCU (46-15) got the party started early. A single and a walk put two on with two outs for Elliot Barzilli. The junior reached on a fielder’s choice and a throwing error by Austin Homan allowed two to cross the plate and TCU took the quick 2-0 lead.
The Aggie bats fired back in the home half of the first. With two on following a Nick Banks single and Ryne Birk walk. Michael Barash delivered a two-run double to left that tied the game at 2-2 after one.
Then Luken Baker, who grew up watching A&M games as a kid, delivered a crowd silencing bomb.
With two on by way of walks from Brigham Hill, Baker showed off his pure power and launched a no-doubter off the scoreboard that gave TCU a 5-2 lead after three frames.
He gave a pitch I put a good swing one…once I saw the left fielder turn his back, I knew it was gone,” Baker said.
Aggie starter Brigham Hill struggled through the night. The sophomore ace pitched four and two-third innings, allowing seven earned runs on six hits and walked four. When talking of his struggles, Hill summed up his outing short and sweet.
“I was unable to get ahead in the count, gave away too many free bases and when I made mistakes, they took advantage of it,” Hill said.
The Frogs built on that lead in the fifth.
A single and a hit by pitch put two on with two outs. A wild pitch from Brigham Hill sailed beyond Barash, who had issues locating the ball. A run scored during the brouhaha and TCU took a 6-2 lead.
Eight-hole hitter Elliot Barzilli followed by looping a two-run double right on the left field line. TCU took an 8-2 lead after five.
On the hill, TCU’s Jared Janczak tossed a brilliant opening act. The redshirt freshman hurled seven and two-thirds, allowing two earned runs off six hits while striking out four. Behind him, Brian Trieglaff and Ryan Burnett combined to throw an inning and a third of hitless, scoreless baseball to slam the door shut.
TCU’s offense produced when it counted and capitalized on the Aggie miscues. The Frogs went 5-for-14 when hitting with two outs and scored three of their eight runs with two outs on the board. A&M had two errors on the night, both leading to TCU runs.
Offensively on the A&M side (48-15), Janczak’s performance made life unpleasant. The Aggies left seven runners stranded while going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and 1-for-13 with runners on.
He forced the Aggies into a lot of groundball outs and did not allow them to make truly solid contact on anything. And that threw the Aggie lineup for a whirl.
“Through the middle innings, we really got away from our approach and what we do as a team. When we do that, we are just very average, as you can tell by tonight…[Janczak] made the pitches when they needed to be made. Credit him, he made the adjustment to us but we did not adjust to him.”
A&M tallied just six hits, led by White who picked up two in a 2-for-4 night. Barash finished 1-for-3 with two RBI and he made it clear that he and the Aggies are not dead after just one game.
“I am not ready to be done…we’re not done yet. I’m not ready to take this uniform off. We have to come out tomorrow, play hard and be the aggressors, and the chips will fall where they need to.”
The loss moves A&M into an elimination situation. Game two takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday night and Kyle Simonds will start on the mound for A&M.