Aggie bats falter, A&M falls to Mississippi State, 5-1, in game two

Records: Mississippi State 31-17 (15-8 SEC), Texas A&M 34-14 (14-9)

WP: Denver McQuary (2-1)

LP: Corbin Martin (5-3)

Save: Cole Gordon (1)
Box Score

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The Aggies came into Friday night’s contest with Mississippi State looking to clinch their sixth straight SEC series win. Brent Rooker and the Bulldog pitchers, however, had different ideas as A&M fell, 5-1.

Corbin Martin toed the rubber on Friday night, and things were dicey for the junior from the outset. With one out in the first frame, Brent Rooker, the Bulldog first baseman and an outstanding hitter, proceeded to smash a double down the left field line and into the corner. Martin hit the next man, Ryan Gridley, and both runners eventually came around to score. The Aggies were in the hole, 2-0, from the word 'go.'

“Early in the game, I didn’t do him any favors as far as managing how we were pitching guys. I’ll take full blame for that, but he did a nice job keeping it together,” said Rob Childress on Corbin Martin’s start.

All in all, Martin pitched five and two-thirds innings, giving up three runs.

The final run came in the bottom of the second, when the SEC’s top hitter, Rooker, left his mark on the game by short-hopping the wall in left-center field for a double and allowing Mangum to score all the way from first.

Martin settled down later into his appearance and didn't allow any runs over his final three-plus innings of work.

“I just tried to keep doing what I can do for this team, not backing down and being able to compete, trusting these guys behind me and knowing they have my back,” said Martin on his performance.

 

At the plate, the Aggies hit the ball hard early. More times than not, however, they hit the ball hard right at someone.

“The first time through the lineup, I thought we had seven of nine quality at-bats. Hit balls hard, maybe took a pitch for a walk, but the rest of the night, we had seven quality at-bats,” said Childress..

The one bright spot for the Aggies at the plate came in the bottom of the bottom of the fifth inning when Bryan product Blake Kopetsky got a hold of a breaking ball and deposited it into the visitor bullpen in right. It was the first home run of Kopetsky’s career at A&M.

“Growing up here and having birthday parties here, it was an awesome feeling to finally do that … Rounding third base and shaking coach Bolt’s hand was kind of a surreal moment,” said Kopetsky.

Cason Sherrod came on in relief of Corbin Martin in the sixth inning and struck out Rooker to get out of a jam with a runner on third base and two outs. Landon Miner came on for the Aggies in the top of the ninth with the bases loaded and allowed only one run to score, but that lone run increased the deficit to four.

The Aggies tried to mount a comeback in the ninth inning after a Hunter Coleman lead-off walk, but Joel Davis hit into a double play. Mississippi State reliever Cole Gordon struck out George Janca swinging to end the game. Gordon went four complete innings out of the pen for the Bulldogs, allowing two hits and striking out four to get the save.

The Aggies go for the series win once again tomorrow afternoon from Olsen Field. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Stephen Kolek will take the mound in the rubber match for A&M.