A&M uses power from bats, consistent pitching in midweek win over HBU

Game #8: Texas A&M 7, HBU 1
Records: Texas A&M 8-0 (0-0), Houston Baptist 3-6 (0-0)
WP: John Doxakis (2-0)
LP: Brady Batten (1-1)
Box Score

The tenth-ranked Texas A&M baseball team remained perfect on the season, taking down Houston Baptist, 7-1 at Olsen Field behind strong pitching and relentless hitting on Tuesday night.

The Aggies drew first blood and kept piling on the runs. In the bottom of the first, shortstop Braden Shewmake found a pitch he liked and sent it over the right field wall. Chris Andritsos followed suit by muscling a homer to dead center field in the very next at-bat.

Following a double by Hunter Coleman, Logan Foster kept the line moving with an RBI-single up the middle. When the book finally closed on the first frame, A&M held a four run lead.

When it was all said and done, six of the Aggies’ seven runs came with two outs and the team finished the game with 11 hits.

“We have a very scary lineup, it’s one of the best lineup’s I’ve seen in a long time,” Shewmake said. “It makes it so fun to play with and I’m guessing very tough to play against.”

A&M would score again in the second when Michael Helman doubled home Zach DeLoach. The Aggies hung another three spot in the seventh inning — three-straight RBI-singles from Shewmake, Foster and Cole Bedford plated runs. The trio all finished the game with two hits apiece.

Houston Baptist got on the board in the top of the sixth inning after Eliajah Simon swiped second base and was driven home by his teammate Spencer Hollaran with an RBI-single.

Head Coach Rob Childress had high praise for his team’s hitting and determination at the plate tonight.

“The lineup, the depth we have in our lineup, there’s no inning over with two outs and nobody on, we can put an inning together with the hitters we have one through nine,” Childress said.

Lefty John Doxakis, (2-0, 0.69 ERA) got the nod on the hill for the Aggies and he looked sharp — pitching six innings and missing bats left and right, on the way to earning the win. He ended the game with eight strikeouts, gave up zero walks and only surrendered one run. An added perk of Dox’s no walk night — the pitchers will get to take batting practice.

“When you have a game like that it’s all of your pitches, I felt like I could put it where I wanted,” Doxakis said of his command tonight. “Hunt [Hunter Coleman] did a great job of keeping everything looking good, you know, framing pitches — it helped me out a lot.”

Doxakis gave way to Michael Hoffman, who tossed two scoreless innings and pitched around a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning. Cason Sherod finished the game off by posting a zero on the scoreboard in the final half inning.

The Aggies will return to the diamond Wednesday night as they play host to Incarnate Word. Freshman southpaw Dustin Saenz will toe the rubber for A&M. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on SEC Network +.