Aggie bats go dormant in series opening loss to LSU on Thursday, 4-1
Game #30: LSU 4, Texas A&M 1
Records: LSU (20-11, 6-4 SEC), Texas A&M (21-9, 3-7 SEC)
WP: Zach Hess (5-3)
LP: Stephen Kolek (3-4)
Box Score
The Aggies came in to Thursday night's series opening contest against the LSU Tigers looking to right the ship after a rough 3-6 start to Southeastern Conference play. However, LSU starter Zach Hess had different ideas as he kept the Aggie bats quiet and the Tigers cruised to 4-1 victory at Olsen Field.
Junior right-hander Steohen Kolek took the mound for A&M and mowed the LSU hitters down the first time through the order, allowing only one runner to reach base through three frames. When leadoff hitter Zach Watson came up in the fourth, things began to unravel.
Watson worked a leadoff walk and was followed by back-to-back hits from Antoine Duplantis and Beau Jordan and the Tigers had the lead at 2-0.
"Kolek was marvelous for three innings. Then he walked the leadoff hitter and then they strung some hits together. We weren't able to get off the field and keep it a two run game with two outs," said A&M head coach Rob Cildress.
Following the two earlier base hits, LSU junior first baseman Bryce Jordan deliverd a two-out, two-run RBI single to extend the lead to 4-0 and LSU never looked back.
"That's the ballgame in one inning. Game one of a series in the Southeastern Conference usually the team that cracks first is the one that ends up losing. We certainly did in the fourth inning," added Childress.
On the bright side, A&M senior Kaylor Chafin would enter the game in the fourth and get the final out of the inning en route to retiring each of the first 12 batters he faced in his 4.1 inning outing that saw him strike out five, while allowing only one hit.
"It felt good to finally be competitive for my team. I kind of felt like I've been holding us back a little bit in the bullpen, so it was good to get things going. Now I feel like we are a couple of things away from being a great team like we're supposed to be," Chafin said of his performance.
The A&M hitters recorded only five hits on the entire night, two from second baseman Michael Helman and one apiece from Logan Foster, Will Frizzell and Aaron Walters. As a team, A&M also went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring postion on the night against Hess.
Frizzell put the only A&M run on the board when he blasted an opposite field home run off the scoreboard in left during the ninth inning.
For Helman, he hopes the team can bounce back tomorrow and extinguish the frustration from the A&M locker room.
“We’ve got a lot of competitors on this team," Helman said. "Everybody wants to win, we all hate losing and I’m tired of it. Everybody on this team’s tired of it."
Up next, the Aggies return to action on Friday night with lefty John Doxakis on the bump as they try to get back in the series against the Bayou Bengals. First pitch is scheduled for 6:02 from Olsen Field and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.