A six-run second inning jump started the Aggie offense Friday night as the No. 6 Texas A&M baseball team defeated Wright State 11-0 at Olsen Field during the opening day of the NCAA College Station Regional.
“I thought we played well tonight,” Texas A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “It all started on the mound for us, Michael Wacha gave us a great start. Offensively, we got a chance to score in the first inning, but we don’t do it until the second inning when we finally put some things together. Out of the six runs we scored, four were with two outs and Michael was able to get us back in the dugout as fast as he could. We strung a couple of hits together in the fourth and we score another run. Then Gonzales gets the big three-run homer for us in the fifth. Our bullpen did a good job, Michael only threw 82 pitches, and Steve Martin and Estevan (Uriegas) were very good for us in the last nine outs.”
The second-seeded Aggies (43-18) continue their run at the NCAA College Station Regional on Saturday when they face No. 3 seed Seton Hall at 6:35 p.m. The Pirates shutdown second-seeded Arizona 4-0 in the early game on Friday, forcing the Wildcats to square off against Wright State in an elimination game at 12:35 p.m. Saturday.
On Friday, Texas A&M pounded out 16 hits while three Aggie pitchers combined in the shutout effort, which was the team’s seventh of the season.
Sophomore Michael Wacha (8-3) led the way on the mound, tossing six scoreless innings while yielding just five WSU hits. Senior Steve Martin held the Raiders offense at bay with two solid frames before junior Estevan Uriegas tossed a perfect ninth inning.
“The guys (in our line-up) one through nine have a lot of confidence,” Childress added. “That’s carried over from the Big 12 Tournament into this week. A lot of times, you don’t know if that’s going to happen after having a whole week off and not getting to play on Tuesday. We came out and did a nice job. Wright State has a great program, and Rob Cooper does an amazing job. This is not new to them; they’ve been in the post season. They’re well coached. I’m telling you what, offensively, they’ve got a very good offense, very volatile, and Michael (Wacha) just did that good of a job against their hitters.”
After neither team was able to push across a run in the first inning, the Aggies went to work during their turn at bat in the second inning. Leading off the inning, third baseman Adam Smith singled sharply past the WSU shortstop. The ball, however, was misplayed in the outfield allowing Smith to come all the way around to score on the three-base error.
The big-inning continued as Texas A&M scored runs on an RBI single by Andrew Collazo and a Tyler Naquin run-scoring double before junior designated hitter Matt Juengel clubbed a three-run home run to put the Aggies up 6-0.
Junegel’s shot, which cleared the wall inside the left field foul pole, was the Houston native’s team-leading sixth long ball of the year. For the game, Juengel went 2-for-4 to join a list of six Aggies (Tyler Naquin, Krey Bratsen, Adam Smith, Kevin Gonzalez and Andrew Collazo) who enjoyed multi-hit games.
Collazo tacked on another run with his second RBI of the night during the bottom of the fourth as he notched a run-scoring double.
Texas A&M again used the long ball to make an impression on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth as senior catcher Kevin Gonzalez connected on his fifth homer of the season, a three-run shot to left center that made it 10-0 Aggies. The big fly was the 22nd of Gonzalez’s career and his fifth of the season.
A bases-loaded walk issued to first baseman Jacob House in the Aggies’ half of the eighth inning put the final run on the scoreboard.
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