After a very competitive series against a red hot Mississippi State side, the No. 18 Texas A&M baseball team played a much less competitive game against Prairie View A&M on Tuesday. After a six run bottom of the first, the Aggies never looked back, and the Aggies notched the midweek win, 18-1.
A&M freshman pitcher Asa Lacy started on the mound for the Aggies and pitched just two innings before he was pulled after the second inning. Lacy allowed just two hits and fanned four batters in his two inning stint.
The Aggies then used a pitching staff by committee using seven different pitchers, who each pitched an inning, after Lacy. Head coach Rob Childress said the decision to use eight different pitchers was two-fold, he wanted to get some lesser used guys some pitches and he wanted to save arms for this weekend.
“We needed to get some guys who hadn’t pitched for a while out there and in the grease so to speak,” Childress said. “But we also didn’t want to burn anybody out for the weekend and the early runs allowed us to do that.”
The maroon and white fired on all cylinders from the batters box. The Aggies drove in six runs in the first, behind junior rightfielder Chandler Morris’ grand slam. Morris’ grand slam was his first home run as an Aggie, though he didn’t think it would be a home run when he hit it.
“Honestly no [I didn’t think it was a home run] when I hit it,” Morris said. “But everyone ahead of me was able to set me up perfectly and when I hit it I was just hoping.”
The Aggies kept their momentum going in the second, plating four runs. After a break in the third inning, the maroon and nearly went through the entire batting order in the fourth in another six run inning. The 16-0 lead through four innings allowed Childress to bring in junior third baseman Allonte Wingate and senior rightfielder Baine Schoenvogel.
The maroon and white tacked on two more runs in the fifth and sixth via an RBI single from freshman Zach DeLoach and a solo home run to left field by sophomore pitcher Chris Andritsos.
Andritsos then made just his second appearance of the year on the mound in the top of the seventh, allowing the lone Prairie View run of the game via an RBI single.
Neither team was able to plate another run for the duration of the game, clinching the 18-1 victory for the Aggies.
The Aggies will be back in action at Blue Bell Park against No. 1 Florida on Friday with first pitch slated for 6:32 p.m. The game will be televised on the SEC Network+.
“Obviously Florida is the defending National Champions and I would say a lot of the media says that they may be even better than they were last year,” Childress said. “They’ve always hung their hat on pitching but from an offensive standpoint they’ve been fantastic and I’m glad we can have them at home.”