Texas A&M's stellar pitching shuts down Vanderbilt in top-10 clash, 1-0

GAME #45: Texas A&M 1, Vanderbilt 0
RECORDS: Texas A&M 36-9 (15-7); Vanderbilt 35-11 (13-9)
WP: Andrew Vinson (2-2)
LP: Jordan Sheffield (7-3)
S: Mark Ecker (3)
BOX SCORE

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Friday nights -- or in this case, Thursday nights -- in the SEC are known across the country for their incredible pitching matchups. While Texas A&M has struggled to find a reliable ace this season, many teams throughout the conference have a dominant arm to open their weekends.

Vanderbilt had one on Thursday. The Aggies had three.

Though Vanderbilt starter Jordan Sheffield threw seven innings of one-run baseball, the Aggie trio of Turner Larkins, Andrew Vinson and Mark Ecker carried Texas A&M, throwing a combined shut-out in a series-opening victory, 1-0.

The Aggies almost blew the game open early.

J.B. Moss led off the bottom of the first with a hard shot to the third baseman who allowed the ball to sneak under his glove and roll into left field. After reaching base on the error, Moss advanced to third on two sacrifice hits then scored when Hunter Melton singled to left.

The Aggies had the early 1-0 lead and were looking for more, loading the bases two batters later. It was all Sheffield from there, however. The sophomore got out of the jam with a flyout to left and proceeded to shut the Aggie bats down for six more innings. Melton had nothing but praise for his opponent.

"Sheffield has phenomenal stuff," Melton said. "He's an unbelievable pitcher. He was able to throw his change-up for a strike in hitter's counts. He can throw his fastball in and out. The slider and curveball were working well for him. He's a pitcher. He knows how to pitch."

Texas A&M was even better on the mound. Turner Larkins drew his first start of the season and looked great during his short outing. Striking out four in his 3.1 innings of work, Larkins allowed three hits without giving up a run.

The sophomore ran into trouble with two outs in the third inning when shortstop Austin Homan committed two consecutive errors on routine ground balls.

After hitting a man to load the bases, Larkins got a groundout to get the Aggies out of the jam.

Larkins gave up two hits in the fourth and put two runners in scoring position with just one out. With his pitch count rising, the sophomore gave way to senior Andrew Vinson.

The right-hander performed beautifully in relief, punching out the next batter and getting the final batter of the inning to hit a soft ground ball to first base. Scattering three hits over three innings, Vinson kept the Commodores scoreless into the seventh inning before handing the ball to Mark Ecker.

Though Larkins and Vinson turned in great performances on Thursday, Ecker's was perfect. Throwing the final 2.2 innings of the game, Ecker struck out three hitters without allowing a baserunner to carry the Aggies to the finish line in the win, 1-0.

"We've (won) a lot of different ways, and tonight we did it with pitching and defense. Against a team like Vanderbilt, it's hard to make one run stand up," head coach Rob Childress said. "For us to only use three pitchers tonight was huge."

Texas A&M will go for the series win over the Commodores tomorrow at 6 p.m.