Jonathan Moroney's walk-off single pushes Aggies past Alabama, 2-1

GAME #40: Texas A&M 2, Alabama 1
RECORDS: Texas A&M 32-8 (12-6); Alabama 24-17 (9-9)
WP: Andrew Vinson (1-1)
LP: Matt Foster (4-3)
BOX SCORE

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In the first two games of this weekend's series against Alabama, the Aggie baseball team had trouble producing anything offensively. Even taking Austin Homan's walk-off single on Friday into account, Texas A&M struggled at the plate for most of the weekend.

Double-plays, strikeouts and great pitching from the Crimson Tide had stymied the Aggie bats. That held true on Sunday in the series finale -- until the ninth inning, that is.

After the Aggie pitching staff matched the Crimson Tide on the mound, Jonathan Moroney stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning, delivering an RBI-single that scored Ryne Birk and finished off the series-clinching win for the Aggies, 2-1.

Though Sunday games in college baseball are not usually low-scoring affairs, Crimson Tide starter Nick Eicholtz and his Aggie counterpart, Kyle Simonds, were impressive in this rubber match.

Each starter allowed only one run during their respective outings.

 Eicholtz got touched up in the third on an RBI-double from J.B. Moss while Simonds made it into the fifth before walking two men, one of which would eventually score when Andrew Vinson gave up a single to center.

Aside from that, the pitchers were fantastic.

Simonds struck out six while allowing just two hits over his five innings of work, and Eicholtz scattered six hits over seven innings, muting the Aggie offense for the third straight day.

Andrew Vinson relieved Simonds and turned in an electric performance, allowing just one hit over four innings while striking out four. With the game tied going into the bottom half of the ninth inning, Vinson could have been called upon to throw the tenth, but Alabama never got that far.

Facing a host of pitchers in the bottom of the inning, the Aggie offense turned in its second clutch performance of the weekend. Ryne Birk led off the inning with a walk, and Michael Barash sac bunted to move him into scoring position.

With the winning run on second, Alabama sent Thomas Burrows to the mound, a dominant closer that entered the weekend with a sparkling 0.00 ERA. The Aggies sent Jonathan Moroney to the plate, a senior pinch-hitter who had faced Burrows the day before.

That familiarity paid off. Moroney lined the second pitch he saw into center field, scoring Birk and winning the game for the Aggies, 2-1. The senior knew what to look for against Burrows.

"I saw him yesterday, and he started throwing me inside," Moroney said. "He kind of jammed me a little bit on that pitch yesterday. I knew what his delivery looked like. He had a little bit of sink in his ball. I was expecting something middle-in, and of course he threw middle-in. I saw it, and I just tried to hit it."

Relieved to get the series win against the Tide, head coach Rob Childress had nothing but praise for the way Alabama controlled the Aggie offense over the weekend.

"Alabama gave us everything that we wanted and then some," said Childress. "I can't say enough about their pitching staff. They did a great job all weekend long. The pitching coach and pitching staff did something to us that we haven't had done to us very often this year."

Texas A&M will be back at Olsen on Tuesday to take on UT-Arlington.