Texas A&M Baseball: A Comeback Story for the Ages

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Night and Day on the Mound

I have gone from cringing when the relief comes in to having almost complete faith in the Aggie bullpen. Kilkenny has been great as a closer. I can pretty much count on the opposing team not scoring anything when Chafin (his 18.2 scoreless innings and 4-0 mark are the kinds of numbers that generally get associated with an ace) gets to the mound. Sherrod and Doxakis have proven to be reliable as well.

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Hill and Martin were always pretty solid as starters, but I’m most impressed by Kolek’s turnaround. A 17-3 loss will usually stick in somebody’s head, but since then, Kolek has just gotten better and better. Let’s put it this way: during that Game 2 against Vanderbilt, his ERA was a whopping 33.75, which brought his season ERA at the time to 5.23.

Fast forward to the present day, and now his ERA is 3.52 thanks to several very strong outings. In fact, he nearly tossed a no-hitter on Sunday. He also owns the 2017 team’s single game strikeout record of 11 that unfortunately came in a loss against Tennessee in which the batters struggled mightily. Not bad, though. It’s not every day that a pitcher goes from the one facing the Gas-House Gorillas from the Looney Tunes short “Baseball Bugs” to essentially striking out batters at will.

Culture Matters

Finally, I follow a lot of Aggie student athletes on Twitter. Not one of the baseball players has ever posted anything about “doom and gloom” after tough losses. After reading tweets from guys like Corbin Martin and Joel Davis, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a very mentally tough bunch. Thinking back, I’m not that surprised that they fought back after that entire month of March.

Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Arkansas are all still looming. The ball is in your court (field) baseball team. Keep it up.

***Stats from 12thman.com***