Texas A&M baseball claims sweet victory over rival Longhorns, 9-2

Texas A&M baseball coasts to 9-2 win over struggling rivals

In a game where Longhorn fans turned out in droves—enough to set a regular-season attendance record at 8,060, in fact—to see if their team could fell Texas A&M baseball, the Aggies were just too talented and too clutch. The Longhorns wasted a weekend starter in their bid to upset the rolling Aggies, but after three earned runs and two hit batters, he was chased off within three innings.

What was a close game for the first two-thirds of the night got blown open in the seventh inning, when the Aggies plated four runs to go up 7-1. Clutch hitting by Jackson Appel, Hank Bard, and Hayden Schott supplemented a quiet night from Jace LaViolette—no doubt a symptom of getting hit in the elbow by a pitch in his first at-bat, but his teammates picked up the slack.

After the Horns answered the four-run Aggie frame by plating one in the bottom of the 7th, the lead was extended in the 8th to 9-2. The Longhorns could not answer in their next turn up. A scary moment occurred in the final at-bat of the Horns' half-inning, when a ball was fouled into the dugout, striking a manager in the face. Play resumed not long after, but the dugout looked pretty concerned.

Nothing came across for the Aggies in the 9th. Despite the leadoff man reaching for the Horns in their final frame—something that happened way too often tonight—they were unable to capitalize, as Shane Sdao retired the next three batters on strikeouts.

This is the 12th straight win to open the season for the flagship university of the state of Texas, and it is the 4th loss in a row for the Longhorns, who suddenly look somewhat directionless. Texas A&M baseball is rolling in a big way now. They welcome Texas Southern to Olsen Field tomorrow night.