Aggie bats come alive with early offensive explosion, defeat LSU 9-2

Game #31: Texas A&M 9, LSU 2
Records: Texas A&M (22-9, 4-7 SEC), LSU (20-12, 6-5 SEC)
WP: John Doxakis (5-1)
LP: Caleb Gilbert (3-3)
Box Score

Texas A&M approached Friday night’s game against LSU with an added sense of urgency. It was evident as the Aggies slid into bases during batting practice before the game — getting their white uniforms dirty well before first pitch — and it carried over into the first inning.

The Aggies scored five runs in that frame, chasing LSU starter Caleb Gilbert in the process, and John Doxakis scattered six hits and two runs over a career-high eight innings as Texas A&M defeated the No. 17 Tigers 9-2 to even the best-of-three series.

“I can’t tell you how important that win was for us, especially after last night’s disappointing loss,” head coach Rob Childress said after the game. “To come out with the attitude that we had and the energy that we had, the first inning really turned out to be the deciding factor.”

Before the offensive explosion, though, Doxakis had to escape a jam. After issuing a one-out walk to Austin Bain and a double by Antoine Duplantis put two runners in scoring position, Doxakis induced a soft lineout to first base and then struck out Daniel Cabrera to get out of the frame unscathed.

“You’re thinking they’re going to come away with at least one, maybe two runs, and Dox didn’t allow that to happen,” Childress said. “We came in ready to go offensively, grabbed the lead and off we went.”

The Aggie offense quickly turned that bit of pitching prowess into an A&M lead as the first three hitters all singled to plate the first run of the game and then Hunter Coleman crushed a sacrifice fly to deep right to give the Aggies an early 2-0 lead.

Childress and the rest of the coaching staff decided to shake up the batting order, and it paid dividends immediately. The top three in the order — Michael Helman, Logan Foster and Braden Shewmake — combined to go 6-for-13 with five runs scored.

Foster himself went 3-for-3 with two walks to reach base a career-high five times.

“At first I was a little nervous,” Foster said, “but I was in that spot last year and having Michael Helman in front of me and Braden Shewmake behind me — you’re going to feel comfortable with those guys around you.”

With two outs in the first, the Aggies strung together three consecutive hits, with Zach DeLoach blasting an RBI triple to the wall in right-center field. George Janca followed with an RBI single to left that scored DeLoach and ended Gilbert’s night.

“The top of our lineup got it started for us, and I think the middle and bottom-half tagged on to the hit parade and we just kept the swings going,” said DeLoach, who went 2-for-4 in his first game not batting leadoff this season.

Gilbert allowed six hits and five earns runs in 0.2 innings to raise his ERA over a full run to 4.89.

Doxakis’ already-impressive ERA suffered no such damage as he mowed down the Tigers with relative ease for most of the night. The only runs he gave up came on a two-run homer by Cabrera, which looked like a routine fly ball off the bat but was aided by a heavy wind blowing out of Blue Ball Park to right field. 

Stephanie Aiple

Doxakis struck out five in eight innings to improve to 5-1 on the season. 

“Dox was unbelievable on the mound,” Foster said. “That’s honestly the best I’ve ever seen him pitch. Just the way he commanded the zone and he had an attitude about him on the mound, and he was going to throw the first pitch.”

The Aggies needed only one hit to tack on three more runs in the fifth. Foster worked a one-out walk and then scored moments later as LSU center fielder Zach Watson misplayed a line drive off the bat of Shewmake that got past him and rolled all the way to the warning track. Shewmake hustled all the way to third and scored on a wild pitch, which came on the same pitch that walked Coleman.

After Will Frizzell was hit by a pitch, Bedford singled to left to score Coleman and stretch the Aggies’ lead to a commanding 8-2.

They got another one in the seventh as Frizzell led off with a double and, after a Bedford flyout to right allowed pinch runner Allonte Wingate to advance to third, DeLoach notched his second RBI of the evening with a single through the left side.

Asa Lacy relieved Doxakis in the ninth and needed only nine pitches to get through a perfect ninth, striking out two.

“This was a big win for us, but we’re going to come out with the same mentality tomorrow,” Foster said. “As long as we have the 12th Man behind us I think it’s going to be another dogfight.”

The Aggies will give the ball to Mitchell Kilkenny for Saturday’s rubber match as they try to record their first SEC series win of the season. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. and the contest can be seen on SEC Network +.