Texas A&M Baseball: Aggies move up in polls with series win over No. 1 Vandy

Texas A&M baseball (17-5) turned a week from one to forget to something that they can build upon after claiming the series over No. 1 Vanderbilt.

Last week brought Texas A&M baseball their first true road game in a trip to visit the Patriots from Dallas Baptist. The Aggies fell behind early and found themselves back in the ballgame after scoring three in the seventh. The rally fell short and DBU claimed the win (5-4) to drop the Aggies to 5-2 in their midweek action.

Chandler Jozwiak got the start and pitched well giving up one run in three innings. The bullpen could not keep the Patriots from expanding their lead. Joseph Menefee and Bryce Miller each gave up two runs before Chris Weber and Kasey Kalich got the final seven outs.

The offense continues to be a problem. A&M did rally, but ultimately could not drive home the equalizer. The Aggies produced nine hits in the game, six of them came from Bryce Blaum, Logan Foster and Ty Condel.

No. 1 Vanderbilt (in 3 polls) came to Blue Bell Park over the weekend. The Friday night game was a chance for John Doxakis to bounce back from his first loss of the season. He did not have his best stuff, but if you told me he would give you five innings and only give up two runs you would have to believe the Aggies would have a shot at the win.

Miller, Menefee and Weber did not get any help. The sixth inning ultimately would do the Aggies in. Vandy would score three runs on two hits, but they got help by a walk and two errors. They would tack on two additional runs to beat the Aggies (7-4).

Saturday started very different than Friday. Asa Lacy got the start and was cruising retiring the first 10 Commodores he faced before a walk in the fourth. Vandy finally got to Lacy in the fifth with a lead-off double, a walk and a three run home run to give them a 3-0 lead. Lacy came back out in the sixth but the first three reached base and his day would be done.

Jozwiak would come in, but Ethan Paul did the Aggies in again driving in two more to go with the homer he hit in the fifth. So at this point, A&M found themselves in a major hole and would the offense do anything to come through?

Well the offense did come through scoring two in the sixth and five in the eighth thanks in part to three walks, a hit by pitch and a big 3-run triple by the Cam Blake. The weekend hero Jonathan Ducoff got the rally started in the eighth with a bases loaded single to score two. A&M would cap the rally in the ninth when Ducoff drove in Condel to cap the comeback (8-7).

The rubber match on Sunday was all A&M. Christian Roa got the start and was absolutely fantastic. He pitched seven innings giving up only three hits and Miller came in for the final two to secure the win (7-0) and the shutout. Vandy only had four base runners reach second or third base. The Aggies did everything right and hopefully this will be the game to catapult this team forward.

With those results, A&M moved up in all six polls.

• Perfect Game / Rawlings – moved up one spot to No. 17
• NCBWA – up three spots to No. 19
• Baseball America – debut at No. 17, finally
• D1Baseball –  up six spots to No. 13
• Coaches – up four spots to No. 18
• Collegiate Baseball – up two spots to No. 19

This week, the Ags only play one midweek game, that will be against Rice. SEC play continues this weekend with a trip to Lexington to play Kentucky.

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