COLUMBIA, Missouri – The No. 22 Texas A&M Aggies completed a doubleheader sweep of the Missouri Tigers, winning the night cap at Taylor Stadium, 7-1, on Friday. The Maroon and White outscored Missouri 18-2 on the day.
The victory gave the Aggies their fifth consecutive SEC series triumph, including their third consecutive road series.
The highlight of the evening was Kaylor Chafin who retired all 14 batters he faced in relief. Chafin (6-1) recorded a career-high eight strikeouts to pick up his fourth victory in SEC play.
Texas A&M’s pitching staff yielded just two unearned runs on nine hits and six walks while striking out 21 in 18.0 innings of work on Friday.
Missouri (27-17, 8-12 SEC) drew first blood in the bottom of the third. Chris Cornelius slapped a leadoff single up the middle and Connor Brumfield and Kirby McGuire loaded the bases with two bunt singles. A passed ball allowed Cornelius to score the first run of the game. Texas A&M starting pitcher Corbin Martinbattled back with a strikeout and a pair of groundouts to get out of the inning without further damage.
The Aggies manufactured a run in the top of the fifth inning. With one out, Hunter Coleman was issued a base on balls and Blake Kopetsky followed with a double down to rightfield to put two runners in scoring position. Austin Homan punched an 0-2 pitch into rightfield to plate Coleman with the equalizer on the sacrifice fly.
After making some hard-hit outs early in the game, Texas A&M (31-13, 12-8) finally solved Missouri ace Tanner Houck in the eighth inning. George Janca started the inning with a Bermuda triangle double into shallow left center and Nick Choruby put down a bunt single to put runners on the corners. Logan Fosterdrove a single to knock in Janca for the go-ahead run. Braden Shewmake drove Houck out of the contest, launching a two-run double to left-center to stake the Aggies to a 4-1 lead.
The Aggies piled on three more runs in the ninth. The first run scored on a fielding error and Walker Pennington and Shewmake added RBI singles.
Texas A&M starting pitcher Corbin Martin fought through traffic much of his outing. He allowed one unearned run on five hits and three walks while striking out four in 4.1 innings.
Houck (3-7) yielded four runs on nine hits and one walk while striking out five in 7.0 innings. He allowed just one hit in the first four innings, but the Maroon and White wore him down with a hit and a run in the fifth, a hit in the sixth, two hits in the seventh and four hits and four runs with the four batters he faced in the eighth.
With their doubleheader sweep, the Aggies are guaranteed a winning record for the 11th consecutive season. It marks the second-longest string of winning seasons in school annals. A&M put together 39 consecutive winning campaigns between 1961-99.
Shewmake went 3-for-5 in the night cap and finished the day going 7-for-11 with one double and five RBI. Kopetsky went 2-for-5 in game two and batted 4-for-8 in the twin bill.
The Aggies will go for the series sweep Sunday at 1 p.m.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On the doubleheader sweep…
“Today was the best we’ve played all season. The offense was on the attack early and relentless for 18 innings. The pitching and defense couldn’t have been much better.”
On the pitching…
“Brigham (Hill) was outstanding in the first game. He was cruising and could have gone nine innings if we needed him to, but the offense allowed us to get Landon (Miner) some innings. And he did what we want him to do. He attacked the hitters. In the second game, Corbin (Martin) battled through. Missouri could have put up a big in there in the third, but Corbin got through it with just one run. There aren’t many words that can describe how well Kaylor (Chafin) pitched. He retired all 14 guys he faced, and they didn’t make solid contact with many of his pitches. He was the best we’ve seen him.”
Freshman 2B Braden Shewmake
On his day…
“It was unbelievable. I just stuck to the approach Coach (Bolt) has been preaching. They have some quality arms, but we figured out a way to get big hits, keep the line moving and score a lot of runs.”
Junior LHP Kaylor Chafin
On retiring everyone he faced…
“My arm felt good. I just came in and trusted my pitches and the defense.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics