COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 11 Texas A&M Aggies improved to 8-0 on the season with a 7-1 win against the Houston Baptist Huskies Tuesday evening on Blue Bell Park at Olsen Field.
Offensively, Braden Shewmake, Logan Foster, and Chris Andritsos led the Aggies with two hits apiece. Shewmake went yard for the first time this season, plating two runs. While Andritsos hit his third home run of the season, scored two runs and drove in one. Foster added a double and two RBI. The rest of Aggie lineup had five hits, as A&M tallied 11 on the day.
Texas A&M’s John Doxakis appeared on the mound today for his first start and third appearance of the season. Doxakis (2-0) threw 6.0 innings, allowing one earned run and three hits while fanning eight. Nolan Hoffman came in to relieve in the seventh, working 2.0 scoreless frames, striking out two. Cason Sherrod was called in to close the game for the Aggies, whiffing two in a scoreless ninth.
SCORING SUMMARY
B1 | The Aggies wasted no time to put three runs on the board with a two out rally. Shewmake started off the rally with his first homerun of the season. Andritsos followed shortly after to make it back-to-back solo jacks for the Aggies. Hunter Coleman immediately added to the hit column with a double to the right-center gap, followed by a single up the middle by Foster to score Coleman. A&M 3, HBU 0.
B2 | In the second, Zach DeLoach drew a two out walk and then came around to score on a RBI double to the left center fence by Michael Helman. A&M 4, HBU 0.
T6 | The Huskies scored their first run of the game in the sixth, when Elijah Simon singled through the left side. Simon then stole second and was batted in with a RBI single up the middle by Spencer Halloran. A&M 4, HBU 1.
B7 | Texas A&M added to the lead in the seventh with three runs. DeLoach started off with a leadoff single up the middle, and advanced to second on a groundout to third by Helman. Shewmake followed with a single down the rightfield line, scoring DeLoach from second. Shewmake advanced to second when Andritsos singled through the left side, and scored on a single to leftfield by Foster. The hits continued with a Cole Bedford pitch-hit single down the leftfield line, scoring Andritsos. A&M 7, HBU 1.
NEXT UP
The Aggies play host to Incarnate Word on Wednesday with a 6:30 p.m. game at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On how Texas A&M answered Houston Baptist’s leadoff double…
“They hit a leadoff double and just like that they got all the momentum and energy, and Doxakis didn’t allow them to score, struck out the side, and got us in the dugout. Two outs, two strikes, nobody on: we score three runs just like that. We took all the momentum away and did it again. All night long, seven runs and we scored six of them with two outs. Dox was fabulous; got us six, was able to pitch backwards and get them off the fastball. Our two relievers were marvelous.”
On two-out hits…
“The depth that we have in our lineup, there’s no inning over. With two outs and nobody on, we can put an inning together with the hitters that we have
Sophomore LHP John Doxakis
On his pitching performance…
“It’s always going to feel good to be at your best. But again, couldn’t do it without the older guys. They keep motivating you every day to get better and better. That’s what we’ve been working on.”
On confidence boost from the first inning…
“Leadoff double—you never want that, but you have to have confidence in your stuff, and that slider was tough to hit tonight.”
Sophomore SS Braden Shewmake
On the team’s focus on singles instead of home runs…
“Coach (Will) Bolt preaches it to us non-stop, but especially in the dugout. Right before that inning, he was like, “hey guys, I know the ball’s flying, but if we try to hit it out, it’s not going to go out.” The balls that we did hit out were with two strikes. When you get two strikes, you’re not trying to hit the ball out of the yard. We just got pitches to handle and put great swings on them, and they just happened to leave the yard.”
On whether he thought his low-trajectory home run in the first inning would leave the yard…
“No idea, I tried to put my head down and run. Just let the approach take care of everything.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics