COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 2 Texas A&M Aggies notched a 13-3 win over the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders in a seven-inning contest Tuesday evening at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
It marked the 18th consecutive home win and the 24th consecutive midweek victory for the Maroon and White.
Texas A&M (19-2) scored in the first inning for the fourth consecutive game. J.B. Moss drew a four-pitch walk to start the game and Ryne Birk followed with a gapper to left-center for a double. Boomer White and Hunter Melton each drew a base on balls to break the scoring seal. After Nick Banks was caught looking at strike three on the 10th pitch of his at-bat for the first out of the inning, Birk scored on a wild pitch. Nick Choruby capped off the rally with a two-run single through the left side of the infield to inflate the cushion to 4-0.
Nick Anderson hit a leadoff home run for A&M-Corpus Christi in the top of the second to cut the A&M lead to 4-1.
The Aggies continued to pile on the runs in the bottom of the second. Moss started the inning with an infield single, stole second base and moved to third on a wild pitch. Birk laced a single to left-center to drive in Moss. A single through the right side by White put runners on the corners and Melton drove in Birk with a sacrifice fly. Banks continued the cavalcade of runs with an RBI double and Austin Homan inflated the cushion to 9-1 with a two-run single.
A&M-Corpus Christi (9-10) manufactured a run in the top of the third. With one out, Brian Deaver drew a walk, moved to second on a groundout by Casey Thomas and scored when Zack Gibson bounced a single up the middle, cutting the lead to 9-2.
Banks’ two-run triple in the bottom of the third widened the gap to 11-2.
In the top of the fourth, the Islanders put up a run for the third consecutive frame. Anderson led off the inning by rattling a ball into the leftfield corner for a double, moving to third when Moss was unable to field it cleanly. After Dawson Yates swung and missed at strike three for the first out of the inning, Austin Krajnak grounded out to short, plating Anderson to trim the fat to 11-3.
A walk by Choruby, a single by Cole Bedford and a single by Joel Davis set the table for Homan and Alan Campero who each notched RBI with groundouts to give A&M a 13-3 edge after six innings.
Birk led the Aggies at the plate going 4-for-4 with one double, three runs and one RBI. Banks and Homan each had three RBI.
Anderson paced the Islanders at the plate, going 2-for-3 with one double, one home run, two runs and one RBI.
Stephen Kolek (1-0) picked up his first career win on the mound. He allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits and two walks while striking out three in 5.0 innings. Kaylor Chafin retired all three batters he faced in the sixth, including a strikeout. After Mitchell Kilkenny retired two of the three batters he faced to start the seventh, Turner Larkins needed just one pitch to record the final out.
Dalton D’Spain (0-3) was saddled with the loss. He allowed nine runs, seven earned, on seven hits and five walks while striking out one in 2.0 innings.
Texas A&M returns to action Thursday when they host the No. 13 LSU Tigers for a three-game series on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. First pitch times are 6:02 p.m. on Thursday, 8:02 p.m. on Friday and 2:04 p.m. on Saturday.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On the game…
“I’m very proud of our older guys. They set the tone each and every day on how we’re going to go about our business. The leadership has been fantastic. We don’t make anything more or less out of the day we’re given. We we’re ready to go from the start and offensively we took 75 pitches from their starter in two innings. We basically took them out of the game from an offensive perspective from the first two innings on.”
Junior second baseman Ryne Birk…
On the offensive approach…
“The whole team really performed very well. The wind was blowing out, but coach didn’t want us to get too greedy. We just tried to stay on top of the ball and hit line drives. That’s what we did and also we took our walks when we could get ’em. It really paid off for us tonight.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics