FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas – Senior pitcher Kyle Simonds weaved his first career complete-game to lead the No. 2 Texas A&M Aggies to a 6-2 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks in Sunday’s rubber match at Baum Stadium.
Simonds (7-1) yielded two runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out five over the 9.0 innings. He stayed out of traffic early in innings, allowing just three of the eight hits before two outs.
With the win, Texas A&M (35-9, 14-7 SEC) claimed their fourth straight weekend series and maintained their two-game lead in the SEC Western Division over Mississippi State and Ole Miss.
Boomer White and Michael Barash led the Aggies at the plate. White went 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI. Barash went 2-for-4 with one double and two RBI.
Arkansas (26-18, 7-14 SEC) broke the scoring seal in the bottom of the second inning. With one out, Michael Bernal hit a wall-banger to centerfield for a triple. Rick Nomura followed with a four-pitch walk to put runners at the corners. Carson Shaddy knocked in a Bernal with a single to the wall in rightfield, staking the Razorbacks to a 1-0 lead.
Texas A&M benefitted from an Arkansas error as the Aggies put up four runs in the fourth. With one out, Nick Chorubyreached first when shortstop Bernal’s throw bounced past the first baseman. White worked the count full before driving a ball down the leftfield line for a game-tying double. After Hunter Melton swung and missed at strike three for the second out of the inning, Ryne Birk drew a six-pitch walk. Barash gave A&M its first lead of the game when he gapped an 0-1 pitch to left-center for a two-run double. Nick Banks capped off the rally with a single to centerfield, sending Barash home for the 4-1 advantage.
The Aggies added to the lead with a run in the sixth. With two outs, Barash reached on an infield single and Banks drew a four-pitch walk to bring Joel Davis to the plate. Davis got ahead in the count, 3-1, before driving a single through the left side of the infield to plate Barash for the 5-1 lead.
Texas A&M tacked on an insurance run in the top of the sixth. With one out, Austin Homan put down a bunt single. The hit extended his hit streak to 17 games, the longest for an Aggie in 2016. J.B. Moss drew a walk to move Homan into scoring position and White knocked him home with a two-out double for the 6-1 lead.
Shaddy led off the ninth inning with a solo home run, but it was too little, too late as Simonds got a fly out, strikeout and fly out to end the game.
Arkansas starter Keaton McKinney (1-3) was saddled with the loss. He allowed five runs, one earned, on six hits and one walk while striking out five over 5.2 innings.
Shaddy went 3-for-4 with one home run and two RBI.
The Aggies return to action Thursday when they host the No. 7 Vanderbilt Commodores in a three-game series on Olsen Field at Bell Park. Game times for the series are 6 pm on Thursday and Friday and 2:30 pm on Saturday.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On the series…
“I’m proud of our guys. They fought back. We go down 5-2 in the second game of the doubleheader and we have to go to the bullpen in the first inning. That scenario doesn’t usually work out. But we had some guys step up out of the bullpen and we toughened up on offense and found a way to battle back. And today we got a complete-game performance from Kyle (Simonds) when we really needed it.”
On what was working for Kyle Simonds…
“He had all three pitches working on both sides of the plate. His fastball, slider and change-up were working. He did a nice job of stabilizing the day for us and he really did well keeping guys off the bases early in innings.”
Senior pitcher Kyle Simonds
On his what was working…
“I was really trying to establish the fastball on both sides of the plate. Especially on the outer half to the right-handers. I tried to get ahead in the count and with the right-handers when I needed an out the slider was really working.”
On getting through the ninth…
“It seems like the ninth inning is always the longest. I couldn’t get through it against Georgia. The defense did a great job today. I couldn’t have gotten through nine innings without some of the great plays they made.”
On winning coming back to win the series after losing the opener…
“It was huge. We need to play well on the road. There was a little misstep in that first game, but we battled back to win and that was huge. We call Sunday’s championship Sunday. We always want to win on Sunday.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics