Bear trap: Aggies conquer college classic with victory over Baylor, 3-2

GAME #16: Texas A&M 3, Baylor 2
RECORDS: Texas A&M 16-0; Baylor 6-8
WP: Matt Kent (4-0)
LP: Austin Stone(0-1)
S: Ryan Hendrix (4)
BOX SCORE: Link

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Houston, other teams may have a problem.

For the fourth time in four tries, A&M donned their black sweep jerseys on a Sunday and left the stadium victorious.

At times in a 3-2 win over Baylor at Minute Maid Park, A&M looked as if they would lock up a runaway win at any moment. Instead, like many games so far this season, it came down to the last pitch.

After leading off the game with a full count walk, Blake Allemand advanced to second on a pitch in the dirt to Mitchell Nau. When Nau got a full count walk of his own, A&M had men on first and second.

It looked like a sure end to the inning after Nick Banks hit a routine ground ball to short, but an error on the transistion to second allowed Allemand to turn third and cross the plate. Logan Taylor gave the crowd a jolt with a long ball to deep left center, unfortunately, for those in maroon, it was tracked down a few feet short of the wall and A&M settled for a 1-0 lead.

A&M had a chance for another run in the fourth after Logan Taylor took a pitch off the end of the bat down the right field line. When Adam Toth was only able to get a piece of his glove on it, Taylor rolled into second standing up. On a ground ball to third, Taylor moved 90 feet closer to home with a sharp display of base running and awareness. He was checked back towards second but advanced anyway on the long throw across the diamond.

That was as far as Taylor got though, as Logan Nottebrok took a rip at one and sent it just short of the enclosed bullpen in left center. Waiting for it was the glove of a Baylor outfielder, on went the game with the score still locked at 1-0.

The Aggies had been on the verge of producing multiple runs, multiple times before they broke through in the fifth.

Blake Allemand walked for his third time in the ball game and Birk followed suit. With one out, Mitchell Nau drove in two runs and forced starting pitcher Austin Stone out of the game with a double to left. He peppered a line drive just right of the Crawford boxes and let out a justified roar as he coasted into second.

“He was doing a good job of elevating the fastball and we had a hard time laying off it.” Nau said of Baylor’s Stone, “I was lucky enough to stay on top of one and get the big hit when we needed it.”

Matt Kent went seven & a third innings and allowed only one walk while fanning 9 batters. He left the mound to a warranted round of applause from the Aggies in attendance after two singles put runners on the corner for the Bears.

In came Andrew Vinson and by the time two more outs were made, we had a game on our hands.

With a double steal called, A&M had a man cornered between first and second. With a man on third, the Ags continued to chase Logan Brown and did not fire the throw home in time to stop Baylor from scoring its first run. Brown advanced to second on the throw and would come around to score after a wild pitch and groundout to first.

“We should have just taken the out.” Nau said of the eighth inning pickle, “Logan probably though he could have it, which is fine by me. If he makes that throw, he’s the hero. It just didn’t fall that way.”

A&M came to bat in the bottom of the eighth inning looking to widen their lead once again and most likely would have if not for a blatantly wrong call, resulting in Nick Choruby getting gunned down at second. Nick Banks followed with a two out triple to left, but was left stranded and the Aggies took their one run lead into the ninth.

Three tense outs from Ryan Hendrix later, A&M finished off an all-important sweep of the College Classic and took down another former Big 12 foe in the process.

The Aggies have come out on the good side of every close game they’ve played so far and head coach Rob Childress gives his teams leadership the credit for it.

“It’s an older bunch of guys, they don’t panic when things get tight.” Childress said of his bunch. “We might have a bit there in the seventh, but we got it right back.”

After a successful venture into Houston and with conference play right around the corner, these Aggies head back home with their perfect record intact and three name brand wins under their belt.