Texas A&M Baseball: Aggies Edge Tennessee at Olsen Field

Sunday

Texas A&M 3 – Tennessee 5

Stephen Kolek is your new single game strikeout leader for the 2017 season. Brigham Hill had a 10 K outing earlier in the season, but Kolek stole the title from him with an 11 K punch out performance against the Vols. He relied heavily on his breaking ball all afternoon. Why not, when the opposing hitters couldn’t find a way to square it up.

The Aggies managed three hits in the first six innings of play on Sunday against the Volunteers. Only the last hit, a liner up the middle by Braden Shewmake, got past the infield grass. It was another mediocre offensive performance from the Aggies. Texas A&M would load the bases with no outs in the second and seventh inning, but managed just one run combined in the two frames.

The tepid offense came back to bite them. Tennessee tied the game up 3-3 with a double down the left field line in the 8th inning. That paved the way for a lot of free baseball, which came to a halt in the 14th inning. Despite numerous opportunities, the Vols overcame the Aggies in extras to avert a sweep.

Bottom Line

The stars of the weekend were the starting pitchers. All three of them pitched a full seven innings or more and allowed two runs or less. Granted it was against a Tennessee team that isn’t one of the better SEC clubs. Regardless, it is another data point in favor of the Aggies’ post season potential. Pitching and defense are the building blocks of championship teams. The bats will come around.

Texas A&M went 5-for-30 with runners in scoring position this weekend. If they were able to get one more hit in each of the three games their one run leads become two or three run leads. They probably would have picked up a sweep too.

Hitting is contagious. When the offense is clicking, everybody is launching liners into the gap. This wasn’t one of those weekends for the Aggies. It’ll turn around. All it’s going to take is a bit more production from the seniors at the back half of the lineup.

Next: Assessing Aggie Baseball at the Midpoint of SEC Play

Next Up

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will visit Blue Bell Park for a midweek game on Tuesday against the Aggies. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT. Following that game they’ll hit the road for a weekend series against Missouri.

***Stats from 12thman.com, Statsbroadcast.com***