Rob Childress
A.J. Minter
Ronnie Gideon
Texas A&M Baseball
A&M dominates Holy Cross in season-opening 19-2 victory
GAME #1: Texas A&M 19, Holy Cross 2
RECORDS: Texas A&M 1-0; Holy Cross 0-1
WP: Minter (1-0)
LP: Reese (0-1)
S: Simonds (1)
BOX SCORE:Link
In front of 5,963 at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park, a new, tighter-wound baseball made its debut in the 2015 season opener.
Safe to say, everyone on the A&M baseball team enjoyed its company during a 19-2 season-opening demolition of Holy Cross.
The Crusaders did not have such a swinging time.
Ryne Birk had the first of many RBIs when he blistered a line drive into center field, scoring J.B Moss in the bottom of the first. Two batters later, Ronnie Gideon found the bottom of the center field wall and brought home two more Aggies.
The second inning brought with it a new Holy Cross pitcher and seven runs for A&M. Logan Taylor sent one over the wall in left center to start off an inning that saw the A&M lineup in its entirety. After back-to-back HBPs, Mitchell Nau extended the maroon lead with a line drive just inside the left field line, scoring two.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
A.J. Minter won his first start of the season.
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Holy Cross had a chance to stop the ambush when Nick Banks hit a ground ball directly to second base. An error was followed by Ronnie Gideon collecting his third, fourth and fifth RBIs, in the form of a long home run to deep left center. Taylor got halfway to the cycle with a triple to right and scored Blake Allemand to make the lead 10-0 after two innings.
An inning like that is an immediate confidence boost at any time, especially in a season opener. Gideon thought so, too.
“It was great, it was a fun night,” Gideon said. “That’s what happens when everyone hits through the lineup. It is contagious, one hit to the next. That’s how I think I got mine, because everyone else was hitting.”
The third A&M homer of the evening came off the bat of Birk, a solo shot to right field.
Later in the third, Banks tripled to right center, scoring Nau. An RBI single through the right side earned Gideon his sixth RBI of the night and brought the lead to 13-0 a third of the way through the contest.
Holy Cross errors and a few singles led to four more A&M runs in the seventh.
None other than Gideon plated the final additions to the scoreboard. His eighth-inning single scored the 18th and 19th runs of the ball game.
Clay Taylor
Rob Childress was pleased with all aspects of the game.
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Those around the program have been excited about what the offense is capable of this season; A&M coach Rob Childress is part of that group.
“I was really impressed,” Said Childress. “Their pitchers are glad they don’t have to face our hitters anymore, I can tell you that. I was proud of the way we started, A.J went out and threw strikes and our offense didn’t let us down. We scored often and early, it was relentless all night long.”
Offensive production and Gideon’s 8 RBI nwere the night's top stories, but Minter kicked off this year’s campaign with 5 IP, 7 K, 2 BB and no earned runs. He also hit the high 90s time and time again in his first outing, topping out at 98 mph.
Having an offense score ten runs before the third inning was a welcome sight to Minter.
“It sets the tone for the season,” Minter said of his team. “I’m proud of the guys. I was able to trust the defense behind me. All you have to do with that is throw strikes, the rest will work out.”
The Aggies are back at it on Saturday and Childress knows Holy Cross will be looking to avenge the season-opening loss.
“We’ll have another good one on the mound for them tomorrow,” Childress said of the Holy Cross Saturday starter. “It’ll be a different challenge and the score will be 0-0 when we start tomorrow at 2:05.”
RECORDS: Texas A&M 1-0; Holy Cross 0-1
WP: Minter (1-0)
LP: Reese (0-1)
S: Simonds (1)
BOX SCORE:Link
In front of 5,963 at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park, a new, tighter-wound baseball made its debut in the 2015 season opener.
Safe to say, everyone on the A&M baseball team enjoyed its company during a 19-2 season-opening demolition of Holy Cross.
The Crusaders did not have such a swinging time.
Ryne Birk had the first of many RBIs when he blistered a line drive into center field, scoring J.B Moss in the bottom of the first. Two batters later, Ronnie Gideon found the bottom of the center field wall and brought home two more Aggies.
The second inning brought with it a new Holy Cross pitcher and seven runs for A&M. Logan Taylor sent one over the wall in left center to start off an inning that saw the A&M lineup in its entirety. After back-to-back HBPs, Mitchell Nau extended the maroon lead with a line drive just inside the left field line, scoring two.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
A.J. Minter won his first start of the season.
{"Module":"photo","Alignment":"left","Size":"large","Caption":"A.J. Minter won his first start of the season.","MediaItemID":52794}
An inning like that is an immediate confidence boost at any time, especially in a season opener. Gideon thought so, too.
“It was great, it was a fun night,” Gideon said. “That’s what happens when everyone hits through the lineup. It is contagious, one hit to the next. That’s how I think I got mine, because everyone else was hitting.”
The third A&M homer of the evening came off the bat of Birk, a solo shot to right field.
Later in the third, Banks tripled to right center, scoring Nau. An RBI single through the right side earned Gideon his sixth RBI of the night and brought the lead to 13-0 a third of the way through the contest.
Holy Cross errors and a few singles led to four more A&M runs in the seventh.
None other than Gideon plated the final additions to the scoreboard. His eighth-inning single scored the 18th and 19th runs of the ball game.
Clay Taylor
Rob Childress was pleased with all aspects of the game.
{"Module":"photo","Alignment":"right","Size":"large","Caption":"Rob Childress was pleased with all aspects of the game.","MediaItemID":30596}
“I was really impressed,” Said Childress. “Their pitchers are glad they don’t have to face our hitters anymore, I can tell you that. I was proud of the way we started, A.J went out and threw strikes and our offense didn’t let us down. We scored often and early, it was relentless all night long.”
Offensive production and Gideon’s 8 RBI nwere the night's top stories, but Minter kicked off this year’s campaign with 5 IP, 7 K, 2 BB and no earned runs. He also hit the high 90s time and time again in his first outing, topping out at 98 mph.
Having an offense score ten runs before the third inning was a welcome sight to Minter.
“It sets the tone for the season,” Minter said of his team. “I’m proud of the guys. I was able to trust the defense behind me. All you have to do with that is throw strikes, the rest will work out.”
The Aggies are back at it on Saturday and Childress knows Holy Cross will be looking to avenge the season-opening loss.
“We’ll have another good one on the mound for them tomorrow,” Childress said of the Holy Cross Saturday starter. “It’ll be a different challenge and the score will be 0-0 when we start tomorrow at 2:05.”
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