Solid pitching & timely hitting leads No. 4 Aggies past Huskies, 6-3
Game #25: No. 4 Texas A&M 6, Houston Christian 3
Records: Texas A&M (22-3, 3-3), Houston Christian (7-17, 0-3)
WP: Chris Cortez (3-1)
LP: Ethan Coronel (0-2)
Box Score
It was a tough day to be a hitter and a good day to be an Aggie pitcher.
Texas A&M pitchers tossed eight straight scoreless innings en route to a 6-3 win on Tuesday night against Houston Christian.
Aggie pitching held the Huskies to just three hits in 29 at-bats while striking out 10. Four of the nine innings of work resulted in a 1-2-3 inning for Max Weiner's crew.
“I thought until the ninth inning, it went about as good as we could’ve hoped in terms of who we wanted to pitch tonight,” A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle said.
Redshirt freshman Luke Jackson got the start on the mound for the first time in his college career.
“A little bit of nervousness, but I felt calm once I got out there and threw the first pitch,” Jackson said about how he felt. “A lot of training that goes into the bullpen sessions that prepared me for that.”
Jackson threw 2.2 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and fanning a pair of hitters. With his outing, Schlossnagle said he may have found his new role as the Aggies’ midweek starter.
“I thought Jackson did a nice job,” Schlossnagle said. “He threw strikes. He had something on the ball, so we’ll probably see him run back out there again.”
Jackson is certainly up for the challenge.
“100 percent. That would be awesome,” he said when asked about possibly taking on the role as the midweek starter.
Behind Jackson, hard-throwing junior Chris Cortez got the final out of the third inning. Despite facing just one hitter, Cortez picked up his third win of the season.
Isaac Morton, Brad Rudis and Shane Sdao all followed Cortez and kept the shutout alive for the Aggies. Both Morton and Rudis pitched a pair of innings and allowed one hit each.
With Rudis’ scoreless outing, he still has yet to give up a run this season in 12.2 innings of work.
“Max has done a really good job with him in being able to get the lefties out,” Schlossngale said.
Sdao worked a three-up, three-down inning in the eighth, which for the Aggies’ sake, hopefully brought along some confidence as the sophomore has struggled his last two times out of the bullpen.
In an inning that will be viewed as an outlier, A&M’s pitching allowed three runs in the ninth, despite not allowing a base hit. Three walks and a hit-by-pitch were enough to get runners on base and make the final frame a little more interesting.
It was all for naught, however, as the Aggies shut the door on the Huskies' comeback. Josh Stewart got Samuel Benjamin to pop out to end the game.
Offensively, the Maroon & White did what needed to be done to win the game.
Dealing with a strong northwest wind, A&M used timely hitting to score its runs.
Hayden Schott drove in three runs — all on three balls hit on the ground.
“Obviously, you want to hit doubles and hit the big hits, but sometimes the game just gives you those infield ones and trust me, when you're not feeling 100 percent at the plate, you’ll take them for sure,” Schott said.
His first hit was a chopper to second with the bases loaded that he beat out after a review. Although Schott wasn’t sure he was safe at first. He thought it was a coin flip call in the moment.
“I went back in the dugout, and I thanked coach Schloss for reviewing it,” Schott said. “When you hit a duffer like that, all you’re trying to do is get down the line, and that’s what I was trying to do. Luckily that worked well.”
In the seventh inning, Schott grounded a ball hard into center field to score Ted Burton and put the Aggies ahead 3-0. His final RBI came on a groundout in the eighth, plating Jace LaViolette.
“I think I’m trying to work some things out of my swing and a day like today is honestly a breath of fresh air,” Schott said.
Braden Montgomery and Burton both recorded RBIs on walks with the bases loaded in the fourth and eighth innings, respectively.
Last but not least, Ali Camarillo dropped down a perfect bunt with two outs in the seventh inning to score Schott and increase the Aggies’ advantage to 4-0.
“We did it the other day, and he bunted the ball a little bit too hard, but tonight we just said, ‘Hey man, any way you want to score that run,’” Schlossnagle said. “He knows I love that play because it’s such a weapon.”
With the win, A&M is now 7-0 in midweek action.
“It keeps you confident,” Schlossnagle said. “I always believe you're on the bubble of something at the end of the year. You're either on the bubble of getting in the conference tournament or on the bubble of getting the NCAA Tournament or hosting or whatever those things are.
“Every single win counts. Somebody asked me about giving guys days off. We only play four days a week. Guys are 18 to 22 years old. I'm the one who needs a day off.”
Schlossnagle will get just one day off as the Aggies begin a three-game series with Auburn on Thursday at Blue Bell Park.
