ARLINGTON, Texas – The Texas A&M Aggies dropped a 3-2 decision to the UT Arlington Mavericks Tuesday evening at Clay Gould Ballpark.
Texas A&M (26-12) drew first blood in the top of the second inning. George Janca, Joel Davis and Jorge Gutierrez started the frame with consecutive singles with Gutierrez’s hit knocking in a run. After Austin Homan struck out for the first out of the inning, Davis and Gutierrez pulled off the double steal to put two runners in scoring position and Walker Pennington plated Davis with a groundout to short, staking the Maroon and White to a 2-0 lead.
UT Arlington (20-17) responded with a run in the home half of the second. Brady Cox hit a leadoff double to rightfield, moved to third on a groundout to first by Noah Vaughan and scored on a sacrifice fly by Colton Turner, trimming the margin to 2-1.
The Mavericks wrangled the lead away in the bottom of the third inning. Aaron Funk reached base to start the inning when Homan misplayed a grounder to short. After R.J. Williams flied out to left field, Funk stole second base on Zac Cook’s strike three. An infield single by Omar Salinas put runners on the corners and Funk scored on a passed ball to knot the game at 2-2. Quintin Rohrbaugh slapped a single to leftfield, scoring Salinas with the go-ahead run.
Texas A&M starter Turner Larkins (0-1) yielded three runs, one earned on six hits while striking out five in 4.0 innings. Two of the hits, both doubles, were the result of misread balls by the Aggies’ outfield and UTA also reached twice on infield singles.
The Aggies’ bullpen continued their strong work. John Doxakis worked 2.2 blank frames, scattering two hits and one walk while striking out three. Cason Sherrod tallied three strikeouts and a walk in 1.1 innings.
UTA used five different pitchers. Starter Jake Wilcox yielded two runs on four hits while striking out two in 2.0 innings. Dylan Schneider, Austin Gardner (2-1), Trae Patterson and Daniel James combined to hold the Maroon and White to just two hits and two walks while striking out seven in the final seven innings.
The Aggies return to action Friday when the Maroon and White host the Tennessee Volunteers in a 2:02 pm contest on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On the game…
“Darin (Thomas) and his team played great tonight. They did everything it takes to win. Give them all the credit. They went to a lot of different pitchers and they all made great pitches. We had opportunities in the first three innings to score, but hit into some tough luck and they made some great plays. From that point on, we didn’t have a chance. Once they had the lead, they pitched great and played outstanding defense.”
On the defense…
“We made some mistakes early on that cost us. We hung our hat on our defense the last month. If we get the offense going today, we would’ve been able to cover those up, but they cost us tonight. Defense gets magnified in a low scoring game.”
On Turner Larkins‘ outing…
“He pitched outstanding. It’s the best he’s looked in over a year. The box score won’t show it because they had two nubbers for infield singles and the two misplays in the outfield for doubles, but he had great stuff and was making the right pitches. The bullpen came in and did a great job and kept us in the game.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics