That’s what you call a bounce-back week. Aggie baseball was in desperation mode coming off of a nightmare weekend in Frisco and entering a tricky slate of games leading into the start of SEC play. What we saw was a 4-0 record, including a walk-off victory over A&M-CC on Tuesday, an absolute pitching gem from Asa Lacy in a win over New Mexico State on Friday, a come-from-behind victory on Saturday, and a run-rule victory to close out the sweep over NMSU on Sunday.
Was it perfect? No, not by a long shot. But we saw a lot of “good” from the Aggies in a week where their entire fan base was mired in complete depression after the three games in D/FW. It would have been quite easy for a group of 18-to-22-year-olds to lick their wounds and not do what it takes to rebound from it. But that’s not at all what this A&M team did. These guys showed a lot of toughness in bouncing back, staying confident and, on the whole, playing very sound baseball in all facets.
It’s spring break, and I want to get home to the kiddos as quickly as I can — and I think I need to get an X-Ray on my foot today — so let’s keep this report a little bit shorter, but still ultra-informative, this week. Here goes...
INF Austin Bost
Hit 1.000 on the week. That’s right ... Bost went a perfect 3-for-3 this week, and all three of his hits were home runs. He also walked twice and reached via a hit batsman, getting on base in all six of his plate appearances in three games worth of action ... two as a pinch hitter and one as the starting first baseman. The JUCO transfer began his A&M career 0-for-9 in limited action through the first 13 games. But in the loss to OK State in Frisco, he got his first major college hit with a pinch-hit RBI single. He got another pinch-hit opportunity in the game against Corpus and drew a walk. On Saturday, Bost got back in there in a pinch-hit situation and barreled up an absolute bomb off the scoreboard in left that helped A&M overcome a 5-0 deficit to New Mexico State. He then drew the Sunday start at first base and made it count. Bost homered to lead off the 2nd inning and blasted another shot off the foul pole to drive in three runs as part of a nine-run 5th inning en route to a 16-2 run-rule victory.
If you want to know a crazy stat, the sophomore is riding a streak in which he has hit three home runs in his last three swings. I repeat ... his last three swings have left the yard. Ridiculous. Bost drove in seven runs on the weekend and is currently sitting at 10 RBI on the season in just 13 official at-bats. That’s more than Ray Alejo (7 RBI in 47 ABs), Cam Blake (6 RBI in 39 ABs) and Mikey Hoehner (6 RBI in 38 ABs). He’s hitting .308 / .471 / 1.000 in 17 plate appearances in ’20. The key for the A&M staff will be where to plug him into the lineup defensively because he’s now a mainstay in the order for the foreseeable future.
LHP Asa Lacy
Back-to-back-to-back weekly honors for the junior fireballer, who went out and “shoved” against New Mexico State, to the tune of seven complete innings of no-hit ball. The fastball consistently hovered around 96-97 MPH, and the ever-evolving slider/cutter was virtually unhittable and has been throughout his junior season. Lacy left the game after seven without a hit on the board for the visiting Aggies and the nation’s leader in home runs, Nick Gonzales. The top five overall prospect went 0-for-2 with a walk against Lacy and went into a weekend-long slump after losing the battle of high first-round picks. The Aggie ace walked just two and struck out 12. The fan in me wanted to see Lacy take the ball to try to finish off the no-hitter, but with the pitch count already at 99 after seven and knowing that it would probably take at least 130 pitches to complete the no-no — in a blowout game that doesn’t matter. The call to pull him from the game was the right one by Rob Childress. Much bigger fish to fry moving forward, starting at Auburn this coming Friday.
OF/INF Zane Schmidt - Hit .800 (4-for-5) in limited action, drawing a well-earned Sunday start at third base and delivering with a 3-for-4, three-RBI showing. Hitting .414 / .485 / .552 in 29 official at-bats and and 33 plate appearances. Look to see Schmidt continuing to get plugged into the lineup wherever the A&M coaches can find a spot for him in an effort to get his bat in the game.
OF Zach DeLoach - Hit .438 (7-for-16) with a double, two homers (both on Sunday) and six RBI. He also stole a base. The white-hot junior leads A&M in just about every offensive category. Sitting at an other-worldly .462 / .586 / .865, DeLoach leads all Aggies with enough ABs to qualify in average by a margin of 109 points, on-base percentage by 143 points and slugging percentage by an astounding 277 points over number two on the team. He also leads the club in hits (24), runs (25), home runs (6), RBI (17 - tied with Bryce Blaum), total bases (45) and fewest strikeouts (2). He’s also one off the team lead with six steals in six attempts (one behind Blaum).
INF Logan Sartori - Hit .385 (5-for-13) with two doubles, two RBI and a stolen base and played error-free baseball at third base and second base. He also walked three times, scored six runs and went the entire week without a strikeout. At .353 / .443 / .588, Sartori is second on the team in average, hits (18), doubles (6), total bases (30), on-base percentage and slugging.
1B/C Hunter Coleman - Hit .400 (4-for-10) with a pair of doubles, five RBI and three runs scored. Hitting .269 / .406 / .481 on the young season with a team-worst 18 strikeouts, but he had just three Ks last week.
OF Ray Alejo - Hit .357 (5-for-14) with four RBI and three runs scored, including the game-tying and go-ahead RBI on a 7th inning single through the left side to beat NMSU on Saturday. Hitting .298 / .441 / .383 ... third in average among guys with qualifying ABs, as well as OBP and runs. Tied with DeLoach and one behind Blaum in the stolen base category (6-of-7).
RHP Bryce Miller - Worked the final 1.1 innings vs. A&M-CC on Tuesday to get the pitching win. Then came back on Saturday and closed down a tight win over NMSU with 1.1 scoreless. This comes after a weekend to forget in Frisco. It was huge to run Miller right back out there a couple of times this week and have him find success and regain confidence before SEC play. Miller is 1-2 with a 3.60 ERA and three saves on the season. He’s allowed four earned runs on seven hits over ten innings of work, striking out 11 and walking just two. Opponents are hitting just .200 against him in ’20.
LHP Chris Weber - Got his first start of the season on Sunday and allowed just one run (earned) on three hits over five innings of work, fanning seven and walking three. Weber is emerging of late and looks like a lock to remain in the weekend rotation as SEC play approaches. And with Christian Roa’s struggles in his last two starts, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Weber move up a day to Saturday. The sophomore now boasts a 2.35 ERA in five appearances and has 20 strikeouts in 15.1 innings of work thus far.
LHP Chandler Jozwiak - Dazzled over 3.1 relief innings on Saturday after Roa was pulled in the fifth. He gave up three hits but held the visiting Aggies scoreless during his stint out of the bullpen, walking two and punching out four. Joz looked very comfortable and featured better bite in his secondary pitches than we saw in any of his starts to date.
LHP Dustin Saenz - Worked 4.2 relief innings behind lefty Jonathan Childress, who left Tuesday’s game vs. CC in the 2nd inning. Gave up just one run on six hits with a pair of walks and four Ks. Saenz has had much better command of all of his pitching mix than he showed in his first two seasons, and the slider has become a plus pitch in his arsenal. He’s still allowing more hits (23) than innings pitched (16), but the strikeout rate is strong at over one per inning and nearly a 3/1 K/BB ratio (19 strikeouts vs. seven walks).
RHP Christian Roa - Struggled mightily in a no-decision vs. NMSU on Saturday. The junior got hit hard in 4.1 innings, allowing five earned runs on four hits. Roa did punch out six hitters but also issued four free passes, something that was very uncharacteristic of him up until the UCLA game last week. In Christian’s last two starts, he’s given up eight walks and ten earned runs and did not make it out of the fifth inning in either outing. With a 5.85 ERA, and despite an impressive K/BB ratio even still at nearly 4/1 (35 Ks vs. 9 BB), I wouldn’t be surprised to see Coach Childress make a move to take Roa out of the weekend rotation for a week or two to get him locked in again. However, Roa is a huge part of the longterm plans on the mound in ’20, and it’s vital that he gets right ASAP.
Best thing that happened in the series vs. New Mexico State...
• Obviously, sweeping an opponent will top just about anything. Also, Asa Lacy’s no-hit bid was amazing to watch. But I’m going to say it was the job the Aggies did on New Mexico State all-world slugger Nick Gonzales, who managed just two hits all weekend. Gonzales went just 2-for-10 with zero RBI and just two runs scored on the weekend. He did walk three times but also struck out three times. Both of his hits came in his last two at-bats of the series with the game well in-hand for A&M, and neither went for extra-bases. Incredible job of scouting and executing by Coach Childress, assistant Kyle Simonds and the A&M arms.
• Here’s a look at what the Aggie bats did in five critical situational areas vs. NMSU...
• Here’s updated season totals to this point in all five areas...
• Solid, solid offensive numbers over the weekend and even for the season through 17 games, especially when you factor in how meager the offensive display was last weekend.
• The offense is currently sitting at .297 / .422 / .471 as a team with 19 home runs and 33 steals in 38 attempts. You don’t like the 122 strikeouts in 17 games (7.2 PG), but you love to see the 95 walks and 30 HBP. A&M is still clinging to more free passes than strikeouts. Let’s see if they can hang on to that rare feat for another week.
• Here are the raw numbers from what the Aggie pitching staff did in five critical situational areas vs. the visiting Aggies...
• Here’s updated season totals to this point in all five areas...
• Ridiculous numbers in all five areas over the weekend and throughout the season. It hasn’t always looked beautiful on the mound, and there are still some questions to solve heading into week five of the season, but A&M is doing a pretty good job of keeping the leadoff man from reaching and a great job of stepping up with two outs and with runners in second and/or third base.
• So far on the season, the Aggies have ten guys with an ERA under 2.50, 10 arms with fewer hits allowed than innings pitched, seven pitchers with a 3/1 K/BB ratio or better, a whopping 15 guys with at least one K per inning pitched and ten arms with an opponents’ average below .250. Still, quite a lot to be encouraged about on the mound besides just Asa Lacy and despite Christian Roa’s recent downturn.
• Don’t look now but freshmen Mason Ornelas and Alex Magers are carving out a pretty big role in the bullpen. Magers is a side-winder from a 1A school outside of San Antonio that has come into big spots and continues to get outs. And Ornelas is blowing the doors off of the opposition early on in his first college season. He’s allowed just one run (earned) on three hits in 7.1 innings of work ... all in relief. He’s walked one with 12 strikeouts and a dazzling .120 opponents average. This guy has closer’s stuff written all over him.
• Good to see Moo Menefee take the ball on Sunday and get out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam by striking out both batters he faced. The sophomore lefty is such a key part of the pen, and Sunday’s short stint was a very good sign that he is healthy after leaving last week with a tweaked back and ready to roll this weekend.
• Trevor Werner was fielding ground balls at shortstop before Sunday’s game. He wasn’t throwing, but that is at least a hopeful sign that the injury isn’t UCL related (Tommy John). I don’t think he would be out there pregame doing anything if Tommy John was forthcoming. We’ll remain optimistic until we hear an update from Coach Childress on the matter.
Big week for A&M with four games on the road. Tuesday, the Aggies are at Rice, and the campus is shut down after a faculty member was found to have the Coronavirus. Athletic competition does, however, remain open at this point. Then it’s on to Auburn for three critical games to open up conference action. We’ll have much more on the Aggies and Tigers as the week progresses.
