COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 20 Texas A&M Aggies suffered their first defeat of the season, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Pepperdine Waves Saturday afternoon on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
Pepperdine (4-1) drew first blood in the top of the first inning. With one out, Matt Gelalich roped a ball over the head of shortstop Austin Homan. Homan got on his ladder but was unable to snare the line drive as Gelalich reached on the single. With two outs, Ben Rodriguez was hit by a pitch and Jordan Qsar followed with a wall-banger to left for an RBI double and the 1-0 lead.
Texas A&M (5-1) knotted the game in the home half of the third inning. With two outs, Nick Choruby drew a four-pitch walk and stole second base. Cam Blake punched a single through the left side of the infield to plate Choruby with the equalizer.
The Waves reclaimed the lead in the top of the seventh. Matt Crowder snuck a grounder under the glove of a diving George Janca at third base to reach on a leadoff single. Quincy McAfee pushed Crowder into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt and with two outs, Aaron Barnett plated the go-ahead run with a double down the rightfield line.
Stephen Kolek was left with no decision despite the strongest performance of his career. He yielded one run on five hits and two walks while walking two in 6.0 innings. Corbin Martin (0-1) was saddled with the loss. He allowed one run on two hits, striking out one in 1.0 innings. John Doxakis finished the game for the Aggies, retiring six of the seven batters he faced with two strikeouts in two hitless frames.
The Aggies gave up four outs on the basepaths with three runners picked off and one caught stealing. The Maroon and White were also doomed by a season-high 12 strikeouts.
Max Gamboa (1-0) was impressive on the mound for Pepperdine. He allowed one run on five hits and two walks while striking out a career-high 10 in 6.2 innings. Max Green worked around two hits and two walks, while striking out two, in 1.1 scoreless innings. Qsar went to the hill with a runner on first and no outs in the ninth and ended the game with a sacrifice bunt and two fly outs to rightfield for his first save of the season.
Choruby, Blake and George Janca each notched two hits for Texas A&M. Gelalich and Austin Bernard had two hits apiece for the Waves.
Pepperdine and Texas A&M wrap up the series Sunday with the rubber match slated for 1:02 p.m.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On the game…
“Give Pepperdine credit. Their pitcher (Max Gamboa) did a great job and their bullpen came in and did a great job. But four outs on the bases is tough to swallow. You’re telling the other team ‘you don’t have to bring your best for 27 outs because we’re going to give you some freebies.”
On what made Max Gamboa effective…
“Early on his stuff was really good. He was on top of the fastball and his slider was really good. Even our left-handed hitters had a hard time with that. The first time through he struck out six. Like Nolan Ryan the first time through the lineup. I thought he competed really well.
Sophomore RHP Stephen Kolek
Thoughts on the game…
“I tried to pound the zone and let my defense work. I tried to keep my teammates in this game and tried to keep a good pace. I was letting my two-seam work and was again just trying to pitch to where my defense could win the game and keep them involved. You gotta love a guy like (George) Janca behind you making three diving stops.”
On what he has to work on before his next outing…
“I’m feeling pretty good but I still have a lot to work on. The team still has plenty to work on as well. We will just have to come back out here tomorrow and get after it.”
Senior OF Nick Choruby
On how he’ll motivate the team after first loss…
“I think everybody knows that we kind of gave that one away. You can’t just roll out here and expect to win. You’ve got to come ready to play, ready to compete. We didn’t do that today, but it’s a learning process so we’re going to come back out tomorrow ready to go.”
On base running issues…
“Yeah, base running obviously was an issue today. We’re going to have to fix that going forward.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics