Aggie offense comes alive from the onset to dominate Long Beach State, 19-1

Game #16: Texas A&M 19, Long Beach State 1
Records: Texas A&M 15-1 (0-0), Long Beach State 5-10 (0-0)
WP: John Doxakis (3-0)
LP: Zak Baayoun (2-2)
Box Score

Logan Foster homered twice and John Doxakis was superb for seven innings on the mound as Texas A&M cruised to an 19-1 victory over Long Beach State in front of 5,005 sun-kissed fans Saturday afternoon at Olsen Field.

The Aggies pounded out 17 hits and put up a nine-spot on the scoreboard in the seventh where they sent nine hitters to the plate before recording an out. All in all, it was an offensive explosion for one of college baseball’s most prolific offenses.

“Hitting is contagious,” George Janca said after the game. “Every guy that got put in the lineup today had great swings and played great defense behind the pitcher. That’s all you can ask for.”

Brianna Hillman, TexAgs

George Janca went 3-for-5 with three RBI to raise his batting average 51 points on the season. 

Less than 24 hours after getting shut down for the first six innings by lefty Clayton Andrews in the series opener, the Aggies teed off on southpaw Zak Baayoun immediately.

Zach DeLoach led off the bottom of the first with a single up the middle, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Michael Helman and scored on a Braden Shewmake RBI single.

The Dirtbags responded with a run of their own in the top of the second due in large part to an error by Chris Andritsos, but Baine Schoenvogel made sure they didn’t get any more. Santino Rivera hit a fly ball to right that looked deep enough to score Shaq Robinson from third, but Schoenvogel uncorked a missile to the plate to get Robinson by a couple of steps.

“Huge momentum-gathering play,” said head coach Rob Childress. “You could just see the energy level of our team once he made that play to keep the game tied — how excited they were.”

Schoenvogel sprinted to the dugout after his throw ended the inning, and the Aggie bats came alive shortly after that.

Helman and Shewmake both reached base to start the third, and Andritsos plated Helman with an RBI single up the middle. A few pitches later, Foster obliterated Baayoun’s 3-1 offering to deep left-center for his fourth home run of the season.

Foster added another bomb in the seventh, blasting a hanging curveball from Dirtbags reliever Sebastian Sanchez 415 feet off the scoreboard in left for a grand slam. With three more hits, Foster raised his batting average to a team-high .426.

“This year I’ve definitely stuck to staying within myself, not trying to get too big,” said Foster, who drove in seven on the afternoon. “I definitely feel a lot more comfortable at the plate, I’m not chasing balls down and I know the guys behind me are going to back me up.”

The Aggies scored two in the fourth and two more in the fifth, allowing Doxakis to settle in and attack the strike zone with tremendous aggressiveness. He threw 51 of his 84 pitches for strikes, scattering an unearned run and five hits over seven innings, striking out four and walking none.

“The goal was to throw strikes and let them get themselves out, and that’s what we did,” said Doxakis, who lowered his season ERA to 0.81. “I was leaving it over the plate the first two innings and Childress called me over and told me I had to start hitting my spots or they were going to keep [getting hits]. I made the commitment, started hitting my spots and it worked out.

The A&M onslaught massively inflated some ERAs on the Dirtbags pitching staff. Baayoun was tagged for eight runs in five innings while Sanchez surrendered seven runs in one inning of work.

The Aggies return to Blue Bell Park on Sunday looking to complete the sweep. First pitch is scheduled for noon and the game can be watched on SEC Network +.