A&M home winning streak ends at the hands of Missouri, 3-2.

GAME #28: Missouri 3, Texas A&M 2
RECORDS:  Missouri 20-8 (6-2); Texas A&M 26-2 (6-2)
WP: Tanner Houck (4-1)
LP: Schlottmann (2-1)

Save: Breckin Williams (7)

Box score: Link

Through 27 contests, Aggie baseball made everyone watching forget that close games don't always favor the maroon and white.

That belief had Olsen Field shaking in the ninth inning as A&M seemed sure to complete a clutch comeback.

However, in Saturday’s 3-2 loss at the hands of the Missouri Tigers, luck favored the visitors to College Station for the first time all season and the comeback never came.

This one started off as most Aggie games have, with the team jumping out of the gate offensively.

Nick Banks kicked off the second inning with a bang. The outfielder turned on one and took it over the short fence in right as fast as the ball would travel. His second homer of the season gave the Ags an early 1-0 lead.

Making the first start of his career, Kyle Simonds was faced with a difficult situation in the third inning and got through it tremendously well.

Matt Sachs, TexAgs Nick Banks gave A&M an early lead with his second inning solo homerun {"Module":"photo","Alignment":"right","Size":"large","Caption":"Nick Banks gave A\u0026M an early lead with his second inning solo homerun","MediaItemID":55141}

After two quick outs, Simonds issued a free pass and Missouri had a runner aboard. A single back up the middle from the next man up put runners on the corners and gave the Tigers a chance to knot things up.

The Aggie right-hander was having none of that as he forced Trey Harris to ground out to third and ended the opposing threat in its tracks.

A&M took advantage of the momentum and doubled their lead in the bottom half of the inning. Things got rolling right away as Hunter Melton continued his hot series by blistering a double into right center. He moved one step closer after a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt down the third baseline off the bat of Michael Barash.

The small ball paid off when the next man to the plate, Blake Allemand, singled back up the middle and scored Melton from third.

While Simonds put on a terrific magic show most of the day and escaped some sticky situations, the fourth inning proved itself to be to tricky for even him to overcome unscathed.

After a one out walk, Logan Taylor overran a fly ball down the left field line and the error put runners on first and second. The mistake stung instantly as a single to right from the next Tiger up cut the Aggie lead in half. Missouri caught all the way up after a sacrifice bunt brought home their second run. Head coach Rob Childress talked about the inning following the game.

“We grabbed a 2-0 lead and they come right back.” He said. “We don’t catch a ball in left, they get a hit and then a sacrifice squeeze. Just like that things are tied up.”

That simple.

In the innings to follow, the Aggies had multiple chances with runners on base to propel themselves back in front, but double plays seemingly ended each opportunity.

Matt Sachs, TexAgs Blake Allemand drove in the final Aggie run with his third inning single {"Module":"photo","Alignment":"left","Size":"large","Caption":"Blake Allemand drove in the final Aggie run with his third inning single","MediaItemID":55147}

First, Logan Taylor opened the fourth with a lead off single. He didn’t stay on the base paths long as Ronnie Gideon grounded into a 6-4-3 double play in the next at bat. The problem repeated itself in a much bigger way a few innings later after A&M loaded the bases with one out.

A soft line drive off the bat of Melton, who was 2-2 at that point, was flipped to second for an inning ending double play. The call was heavily disputed by Ronnie Gideon, and by all accounts rightly so, before the umpire ejected him from the game. Nick Banks felt like the Aggies missed too many opportunities, including that sixth inning.

“One play didn’t go our way. I thought we hit well, we just didn’t get the big hit when we needed to with runners in scoring position. We have to do a better job of that.”

A lead off bunt in the eighth was double clutched by Hunter Melton and the infield hit eventually led to the Tigers first lead of the series. A double down the left field line in the next at bat rolled all the way to corner and gave the runner enough time to traverse 270 feet to home from first.

A&M put runners on the corners in both of its final at bats, but the closest they came to tying things up was with Michael Barash and his one out ninth inning single. The catcher tore a shot 329 feet to left field. Inches higher and A&M takes the game into the 10^th inning, at the very least.

Instead, the Aggies will head into Sunday needing to win the rubber match for the first time all season in order to clinch the series. Rob Childress knows exactly how important the opportunity is.

“At the halfway point of the season, you usually know what your identity is, yet we haven’t had the challenge of trying to win a series on Sunday. I’m looking forward to seeing how we respond tomorrow."