BATON ROUGE, Louisiana – The Texas A&M Aggies were unable to erase a 4-0 deficit and dropped game two of their series with the No. 8 LSU Tigers, 7-4 at Alex Box Stadium on Friday. The rubber match of the series is slated for 2:32 p.m. on Saturday.
Aggie starter Stephen Kolek was cruising early, including a five-pitch second inning, before running into trouble in the third. With one out, Zach Watson doubled down the leftfield line and Cole Freeman followed with a single to right to put runners on the corners. Antoine Duplantis poked a single through the left side to break the scoring seal and Kramer Robertson plated two with a double to leftfield to stake LSU to a 3-0 lead.
The Tigers tacked on a run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Duplantis started the inning with a single to leftfield and stole second base. With one out, Duplantis moved to third on a groundout by Greg Deichmann and he scored when Josh Smith flared an 0-2 pitch into rightfield for a single.
Texas A&M got the leadoff man aboard in each of the first four innings, but were unable to push him across. The Maroon and White left the bases loaded in the fourth.
The Aggies final broke the scoring seal in the top of the seventh. Austin Homan reached on an infield single and Walker Pennington followed with a two-run home run to cut the LSU lead to 4-2.
The Tigers responded with two runs in the home half of the seventh on back-to-back solo home runs by Robertson and Deichmann.
Trailing 7-2 in the ninth, Cole Bedford hit a two-run dinger to close the gap to three runs, but it was all the Aggies could muster.
Kolek (1-2) was saddled with the loss for the Aggies. He allowed four runs, three earned, on eight hits and two walks while striking out two in 5.2 innings.
Jared Poche` earned the win for LSU. He yielded two runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out six over 7.0 innings.
Homan batted 3-for-4 with one run for the Aggies. Nick Choruby and Bedford added two hits apiece. Bedford went 2-for-5 with a home run and two RBI.
Robertson led the LSU attack going 3-for-4 with two runs, one double, one home run and three RBI.
TEXAS QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On tonight’s game…
“We certainly had some opportunities to get to (Jared) Poche` early in the game. We had the leadoff man on each of the first four innings and the runner in scoring position two of those four, but we weren’t able to cash in. If you don’t get to a great pitcher like that early on, he’ll settle in. And he did. On our end, we have to play on a higher level more consistently to compete in SEC play.”
On what he told the team after the game…
“You have a chance to win a series on the road. You have to go and finish it. They have to put this one to bed and come back tomorrow and do whatever it takes to find a way to win.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics