Shewmake hits walk-off as Aggies beat Alabama 3-2 to complete sweep

Game #36: Texas A&M 3, Alabama 2
Records: Texas A&M (27-9, 8-7 SEC), Alabama (21-16, 5-10 SEC)
WP: Nolan Hoffman (4-1)
LP: Deacon Medders (0-2)
Box Score

A walk-off single by Braden Shewmake in the bottom of the 11th inning scored Michael Helman from second to beat Alabama 3-2 and clinch the Aggies’ first SEC sweep of the season.

Nolan Hoffman earned the win on the mound with a 3.1-inning relief outing, striking out four and effectively shutting down the Crimson Tide after he allowed them to tie the game in the top of the ninth.

“A conference sweep is very hard to come by,” Shewmake said after the game. “We knew when we got the first two out of the way, the third one was going to be a grind. The wind was blowing in and we knew we were going to have to manufacture runs.”

Neither team scored in the first inning, but it was action-packed nonetheless. After Michael Helman and Logan Foster reached base to start the frame, Braden Shewmake hit a ground ball to first base that looked like a fielder’s choice. The umpire ruled interference on Foster sliding into second, however, meaning Shewmake was automatically out at first as well.

After the play was upheld on review, the second base umpire ejected A&M assistant coach Justin Seely from the dugout. Seely sprinted onto the field to get his money’s worth, and then Childress got tossed as well after following Seely back onto the field.

Rey Romo, TexAgs

Will Bolt took over the head coaching duties after Rob Childress was ejected in the first inning. 

“It fired everybody up,” Shewmake said of the ejections. “To know that the coaches have our backs like that, that’s all any player wants. For them to have our back and go tell [the umpire] what they thought about what he called really means a lot to everybody.”

The Aggies drew first blood in the third as Helman walked, advanced to third on a perfectly executed hit-and-run by Foster on a single to left, and scored on an RBI single by Shewmake.

They scored another in the fifth with Helman and Foster in the middle of the action once again. Helman got hit by a pitch to start the frame, Foster singled up the middle and then they each stole a base after Shewmake flew out to left. Next up, Hunter Coleman hit a ground ball back to the pitcher, but Kyle Cameron uncorked a wild throw trying to nab Helman at third, allowing the Aggies to stretch their lead.

In all, Helman and Foster each reached base four times on the afternoon and have been a dynamic duo atop the A&M lineup since they were put there in the middle of the LSU series.

A week after Stephen Kolek was removed from his role as the Friday night starter, he showed why Rob Childress had named him the opening day starter at the beginning of the season.

In his first start that didn’t open a weekend series, Kolek allowed only two hits in 7.2 sterling innings, striking out two and inducing a whopping 14 groundball outs.

“When the wind is blowing in it’s an ease on your mind,” Kolek said. “You can throw it in the middle of the plate and say good luck to the guys trying to hit it out of the ballpark. For the most part, I was just trying to fill up the strike zone and if they hit it hard, the wind is going to knock it down.”

Hoffman got the Aggies out of the eighth after Kolek surrendered a home run to Chandler Taylor, but came up just short of his seventh save of the season after pinch-hitter Chandler Avant tied the game with an RBI double that barely got over Zach DeLoach in center field.

Hoffman blanked the Tide in the next two innings, and it was only a matter of time before the A&M offense would break through against Alabama righty Deacon Medders, who threw 4.1 innings of relief.

Helman reached on a fielder’s choice with one out in the eleventh, stole second and, after a walk by Will Frizzell, raced home on Shewmake’s walk-off single.

“It was a stressful game, but they’re all pretty stressful games in the SEC,” said Will Bolt, who took over as the head coach after the early ejections. “A sign of a good team is just finding a way to win. We had just enough hits and we need to keep playing good baseball.”

The Aggies return to Blue Bell Park for a Tuesday matchup against Texas State. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and can be seen on SEC Network +.