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Texas A&M Baseball: Aggies move down in polls after 2-2 week

By Robert Ford

(Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images)
(Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images) /
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Texas A&M baseball (25-8-1, 7-4-1 SEC) won the midweek game against the Texas Longhorns, but could not keep the momentum going in a series loss at LSU.

Texas A&M baseball was a play or two away from having a big week, unfortunately, the breaks went with LSU which gave the Aggies their first series loss of the season.

Before we dive into the series, let’s recap the midweek tilt against Texas. The Aggies would give the ball to Dustin Saenz, who pitched maybe the best six innings of his career, holding the Longhorns to four hits and two runs.

The bullpen was able to hold the lead although it did get very interesting down the stretch. On offense, the Aggies got going after falling behind by one to score four in the second with home runs by Jonathan Ducoff and Mikey Hoehner.

A&M would push the lead to 7-1 before the Horns scored five unanswered heading to the ninth. The Aggies added two runs to give them a little insurance and Kasey Kalich pitched the ninth to pick up his seventh save on the year. The (9-6) win over a rival was big not only because of who you were playing, but also because it came in Austin and the Horns are ranked highly in several of the polls.

A&M traveled to Baton Rouge over the weekend with first place on the line in the SEC West. John Doxakis was looking for his third consecutive SEC win after beating Kentucky and Missouri the last two weeks.

It looked like he would get it with the Aggies leading the Tigers heading to the bottom half of the seventh. On the very first pitch, Brandt Broussard hit a fly ball down the right field foul line and it looked like Ducoff would make the play, unfortunately, the ball bounced off his glove and Broussard was able to score. Ducoff was credited with two errors on the same play.

LSU’s Josh Smith would hit a home run in the eighth to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. The Aggies could not tie it and the first game went to LSU. If you watched the game like I did, you saw two teams that will be a major threat to make a run at Omaha come June.

In the second game, Asa Lacy got the start and was simply brilliant. He pitched six innings giving up only one hit while striking out 11 Tigers. A&M had a 3-0 lead when he left the game, pushed the lead to six before the Tigers rallied and almost tied the game when the final out was recorded with two Tigers in scoring position.

On offense, Cam Blake provided the offense with a three-run double in the second. Braden Shewmake also got involved with a triple that scored Bryce Blaum, then Chandler Morris brought Shewmake home after LSU dropped a foul ball a pitch before. The offense that was not there on Friday was definitely there Saturday to give the Aggies a big win (6-4) and tie the series at one.

The rubber match saw Rob Childress reach into his bag again and go with Chandler Jozwiak and after two innings looked like he made the right call. However, that all went away when the first four batters in the third reached for LSU.

Six Aggie pitchers would see action and all but Dustin Saenz who got the last out gave up at least one run in the game. Hopefully, this game was more about how crazy the week was and not an indication of what will happen the rest of the way.

Offensively, the Aggies scored two in the first and would not score again and actually went down in order five times in the game. On the road, that simply cannot happen when your pitchers do not have their best stuff. LSU would win (9-3) and give the Aggies their first series loss of the season.

With those results, A&M moved up several spots in each poll.

This week, the Ags return home to face Texas State midweek and then Auburn comes to town coming off a series loss at home against Arkansas.

Next. People you didn't know went to Texas A&M. dark

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