COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 4 Texas A&M Aggies (8-1) needed 13 innings to topple the Houston Baptist Huskies (5-4), 3-2, in a come-from-behind triumph on Blue Bell Park at Olsen Field Tuesday.
Trailing 2-1 heading into the bottom of the 13th, the Aggie bats came through when it was needed most to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. The game-winning rally was ignited by a one-out single from Boomer White. Hunter Melton had the clutch hit when he tattooed a game-tying triple down the rightfield line to knock in White. The winning run was on third with only one out and a couple of intentional walks and an infield fly put the game in the hands of Nick Choruby. After the count went to 3-1, HBU reliever Matt Harding (1-1) issued the final ball to Choruby that pushed across the game-winning run.
Brigham Hill toed the rubber in his first start of the season looking to add on to the back-to-shutouts tallied by Aggie pitching. He breezed through four allowing only a couple runners to reach. Things didn’t break his way in the fifth with an infield hit and deflected single helping put the Huskies on the board, ending the A&M pitching scoreless inning streak at 24. Hill’s night concluded with 4.2 Innings, five hits, three Ks, one earned run and a no decision.
Houston Baptist starter Matthew McCullough (1-0) was dealing, not allowing Aggie hitters to get a runner to second until the fifth. The Aggies didn’t help themselves grounding into two double plays, and getting picked off twice.
Cole Bedford lifted the Aggies in the seventh reaching with a double and coming around to score when George Janca hit a two-bouncer that skipped off the second baseman’s glove.
With the game tight the Aggies relied on their bullpen to carry the load. They posted seven straight zeros on the scoreboard thanks to a slew of pitchers including Ty Schlottmann, Andrew Vinson, Mark Ecker and Ryan Hendrix, along with Turner Larkins who was on the mound for 2.1 innings blank frames.
Mitchell Kilkenny, after working the 12th, found himself with a runner on second and two out when the Huskies managed to plate the go-ahead run via a single. Melton almost nabbed the ball at first but it just evaded his outstretched glove.Cason Sherrod (1-0) came in to keep the damage at one run and leave the door open for the A&M comeback. Sherrod earned his first win as an Aggie for the effort.
J.B. Moss continued his hot streak reaching base in 3-of-6 plate appearances. White also had a nice night, tallying three hits bringing his season average to a smoldering .436.
The Aggies will be back in action this weekend for a three-game set with Yale. First pitch on Friday between the Bulldogs and Aggies is set for 6:34 pm.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On his pitching staff…
“I’m proud of the work our guys did on the mound. Everybody went out and attacked the hitters. They all gave us good innings.”
On the day at the plate…
“We knew it was going to be a tough night when we saw who they were throwing. Matthew (McCollough) is a veteran. He’s a senior and he’s been through the battles. He played a big part in their success last season and he’s a guy who could be their conference pitcher of the year when everything is said in done. We did a good job of getting guys on base, but we needed to do a better job of moving them over and sending them home. That was a hard-fought win.”
Senior first baseman Hunter Melton
On the last time he had a triple…
“It was probably in little league. I had a pretty good idea they would probably try to go home, to prevent the tying run from scoring, so I rounded second pretty hard and looked for Coach Bolt and I didn’t see him stopping me.”
Junior outfielder Nick Choruby
On the game-ending walk…
“I knew he was going to have to throw something in the zone eventually, so I wanted to look for my pitch. Once it was 3-1, I got closer to the plate to make it a tougher zone for him to work with and it paid off.”