Aggie Baseball Suffers First Home Loss of the Year

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 2 Texas A&M Aggies had a 21-game home win streak snapped, falling to the Missouri Tigers, 3-2, on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park Saturday afternoon.

Nick Banks put the Aggies in front in the home half of the inning. Leading off the frame, he launched an 0-2 pitch into the visitor’s bullpen for his second home run of the season.

Texas A&M tacked on another run in the third inning. Hunter Melton started the inning with a gapper to right-center for a double. Michael Barash put down a sacrifice bunt to move Melton to third and the Aggie first baseman came home to score on a single to centerfield by Blake Allemand, staking A&M to a 2-0 margin.

The Tigers took advantage of a Texas A&M error to tie the game in the fourth. With one out, Ryan Howard drew a six-pitch walk. Zach Lavy followed with a lazy fly ball down the leftfield line that Logan Taylor misplayed for an error, putting runners at first and third. Brett Bond hit a single to rightfield, plating Howard and cutting the Aggie lead to 2-1 with runners on the corners. Logan Bone tied the contest at 2-2, sending Lavy home with a suicide squeeze bunt.

Texas A&M (26-2, 6-2) missed a chance to reclaim the lead in the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Taylor singled through the right side and Ronnie Gideon golfed a single into shallow left-center to put two runners on. Blake Kopetsky drew a four-pitch walk to fill the bags with Ags, bringing Hunter Melton to the plate. Melton hit a hump-back liner that was snared by second baseman Brett Peel who shuffled the ball to shortstop Ryan Howard, doubling off Gideon at the bag. Gideon was ejected from the game for displaying his displeasure for the merits of the call.

Missouri (20-8, 6-2 SEC) pushed the go-ahead run across in the top of the eighth. Josh Lester reached on a bunt single to start the frame and scored when Ryan Howard rattled a double down the leftfield line.

In the home half of the eighth, the Maroon and White strung together a pair of two-out singles from Taylor and GR Hinsley in the eighth to put runners on the corners, but Blake Kopetsky struck out swinging to end the inning.

The Aggies made noise again in the ninth, but couldn’t push the tying run across. With one out, Barash blasted a ball down the leftfield line. The laser hit the wall three feet shy of a home run, but was so hard he was held to a single. Nick Choruby pinch-ran for Barash and moved to third on a single to rightfield by Allemand. With runners on the corners, Birk was unable to get enough distance on a fly ball to left field and the second out of the inning did not produce a run. The game ended with Nau grounding out to short.

Ty Schlottmann (2-1) was saddled with the loss for A&M. He allowed one run on two hits in 0.1 inning of work.

Kyle Simonds had a strong effort in his first career start. He worked 5.0 innings, allowing two unearned runs on three hits and three walks while striking out one. Jason Freeman worked two scoreless frames as the first pitcher out of the bullpen, scattering two hits and one walk while striking out one.

Tanner Houck (4-1) earned the win for Missouri. He yielded two runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out three in 7.0 innings of work. Breckin Williams worked around four hits for while striking out two over 2.0 innings for his seventh save of the season.

Texas A&M pounded out 12 hits, but stranded 10 runners and hit into two double plays.

The rubber match of the series is slated for 1:05 pm on Sunday.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

 

Head coach Rob Childress 

On the game…

We made mistakes and Missouri took advantage of them. We weren’t able to do enough to make up for our mistakes. They’re a good ball club. When you have a lead, you can’t let them back in the game with mistakes, because they will make you pay for them.”

On the series…

“This is SEC baseball. Every weekend is like this. Tomorrow is championship Sunday. Both teams are playing for something and the winner will be the team that executes and plays the best baseball.”

Junior starting pitcher Kyle Simonds

On his day…

“It felt good to be back in a starting role. To be back on the bump, and to go for about five innings. I wish it would have gone longer. I made too many mistakes, I should have put some guys away when I had two strikes on them, so I kind of beat myself up by giving too many walks, but I thought we played hard.

On starting as opposed to relieving…

“Yeah, it’s what I came here to do, I came here to start. It’s what I’ve done for quite a while now, so hopefully I’ll get the ball next Saturday as well.”

Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics

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