COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Junior pitcher John Stilson struck out a career-best nine batters over six innings of work as the No. 8 Texas A&M baseball team notched a 3-1 opening-day victory over Le Moyne Friday at Olsen Field.
A crowd of 5,106, the fifth-largest opening day crowd in program history, saw the Aggies win their 11th consecutive home opener and their 25th overall their last 26 home debuts.
“It’s going to come down to making routine plays, throwing strikes and putting the ball in play and we did a great job tonight of doing that,” head coach Rob Childress said. “They made a couple of mistakes and we capitalized on them. Then we came right back, made a mistake and they capitalized on it. We had the bases loaded in the fourth inning with one out and the chance to get the big hit but were not able to do that. Matt Juengel had a great at-bat with two strikes and hit a home run to give us a little bit of a cushion. John Stilson was outstanding and our bullpen did a great, great job.”
In his first career start after an All-American campaign as a reliever in 2010, Stilson was solid and allowed the Dolphins just three hits and an unearned run before exiting after the sixth inning.
Following Stilson on the mound, a trio of Aggie relievers – Estevan Uriegas, Nick Fleece and Ross Stripling – kept the Le Moyne hitters off balance and off the scoreboard, allowing just a single base runner in the final three innings. Stripling punctuating the win with a perfect ninth for his first career save.
Offensively, Texas A&M was able to break a scoreless tie and push across two runs in the bottom of the third inning. Senior shortstop Kenny Jackson reached on an error to start the frame and scored later in the inning on another Dolphin fielding miscue. Junior second baseman Scott Arthur came home with the second run on a sac fly off the bat of Tyler Naquin.
Le Moyne pulled back within a single run in the visitor’s half of the fourth to send the game to the fifth inning with the Aggies clinging to a 2-1 advantage.
In the home half of the fifth, junior Matt Juengel increased the A&M lead to 3-1 as he connected on a two-out, solo home run that cleared the left field wall.
The blast from Juengel and the lights-out work of the Aggie bullpen foiled any comeback attempt by the Dolphins and sent the home crowd home happy.
Junior first baseman Jacob House, playing in his first game as an Aggie after transferring from Arkansas, collected two hits including a fifth inning double.
The win was also a milestone for Childress as he collected his 200th career coaching victory, increasing his mark as a head coach to 200-113-1 (.639).
Texas A&M and Le Moyne continue the series Saturday with a 2:05 p.m. contest at Olsen Field. Sophomore righty Michael Wacha, who was 9-2 with a 2.90 ERA last season, is set to toe the rubber for the Aggies and be matched up against Le Moyne left-hander Cory Nelson (2-6; 5.15 ERA in 2010).