Story Poster
Rob Childress
Brigham Hill
Braden Shewmake
George Janca
Texas A&M Baseball

Hill's performance, Janca's walk-off hit lift Aggies over Tennessee, 2-1

April 21, 2017
4,121

Game #39: Texas A&M 2, Tennessee 1
Records: Texas A&M 27-12 (9-7 SEC); Tennessee 19-16 (4-12)
WP: Mitchell Kilkenny (3-1)
LP: Hunter Martin (4-4)
Box Score



Time after time during the 2017 season, Tennessee has played many teams close, and most of the time, it has failed to get over the hump and win games. The Vols tend to hang around and make opponents sweat but fail to put things together when it matters most.

After Friday's victory over the visiting Volunteers, the Texas A&M baseball team is hoping for more of the same. Tennessee kept things close, but the Aggie pitching staff shut down the Vols' sticks, while the A&M lineup got timely hits late in the game on the way to a series-opening, 2-1 win.

Both starting pitchers impressed through the game's first seven innings.

A&M's Brigham Hill struggled with command early but found ways to get out of dangerous situations in the second, fourth and sixth innings in his best outing of the month. All told, the junior right-hander threw seven scoreless innings, giving up 5 hits and 1 walk while striking out six. A&M head coach Rob Childress like the effort he saw from his starter.

Brooke Allemand Texas A&M starter Brigham Hill turned in his best performance of the month on Friday.
"That was the best part," he said after the game. "They took a lot of pitches from him early, but he stayed in the fight. What did he do? Get us through seven? I don't think any of us thought early in the game that he'd get us through seven ... He got himself going. He got in the fight."

Tennessee's Hunter Martin nearly matched Hill pitch-for-pitch through the first seven frames. The Volunteer senior didn't give up a hit until the fourth inning and seemed to be on the way to a complete game shutout, keeping his pitch count low and baffling Aggie hitters.

That began to change in the seventh. Braden Shewmake led off the frame and got down in the count early. With two strikes, Shewmake connected with a Martin changeup and launched it over the wall in right field. The solo shot was his fifth home run of the year and put the Aggies on the board and in the lead, 1-0, heading into the eighth. Shewmake was happy about the home run but respected Martin's performance.

"You don't necessarily try to do that with two strikes, but it happened, and we're glad it did," he said. Later, he added, "(Martin) is a great pitcher. He was mixing speeds and throwing two – sometimes three – pitches for strikes. When you can throw multiple pitches for strikes and keep us off balance, it's tough to hit."

Childress brought in Mitchell Kilkenny to relieve Hill. After a lead-off strikeout, Kilkenny surrendered a triple to Vol second baseman Jeff Moberg, who snuck a line drive past a diving Nick Choruby in center field. The mistake came back to bite the Aggies two batters later when an RBI-single from Jordan Rodgers tied it up, 1-1.

Things stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth when the Aggie bats began to string things together for the first time against Martin. Shewmake got things going with a single up the middle before catcher Hunter Coleman popped up a bunt. Martin dove for the ball, but it bounced out of his glove, allowing Coleman to reach safely and Shewmake to advance to second.

Tennessee then walked Blake Kopetsky to load the bases in hopes of setting up a double play. George Janca had other ideas, stepping up to the plate and launching the first pitch he saw into the left center gap. The hit scored Shewmake and ended the game in walk-off fashion.

We'd seen him three times, and I knew what pitches he threw and what he was going to try to get me out on.
Janca, who's game-winning hit was his only one of the day, was ready for Martin on his fourth trip to the plate.

"I was just looking for a pitch up in the zone that I could get out and drive, that could at least be a sac fly," the third baseman said. He went on to say, "We'd seen him three times, and I knew what pitches he threw and what he was going to try to get me out on. I'd seen him three times before.

"He did a hell of a job, but luckily we were able to pull it out there in the end."

Texas A&M and Tennessee will square off again tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Olsen as the Aggies attempt to win their fourth straight SEC series.
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Hill's performance, Janca's walk-off hit lift Aggies over Tennessee, 2-1

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