Aggies avoid sweep with crucial win over No. 1 Florida in series finale, 7-3
Game #48: Texas A&M 7, Florida 3
Records: Texas A&M (34-14, 12-12 SEC), Florida (38-11, 18-7 SEC)
WP: Stephen Kolek (5-4)
LP: Jack Leftwich (4-2)
SV: Nolan Hoffman (10)
Box Score
Stephen Kolek turned in a sterling performance on the mound as Texas A&M defeated No. 1 Florida 7-3 Sunday afternoon in front of 5,259 fans at Olsen Field.
Kolek scattered six hits and three runs over 6.2 innings, striking out five in the process as the Aggies managed to avoid a sweep and stay in the thick of the SEC West standings.
“Our team showed an awful lot of toughness today after what Florida did to us the last two days,” head coach Rob Childress said after the game. “We showed up with a great attitude, great mentality and Stephen Kolek battled to minimize damage.”
Aaron Walters got the crowd into the game immediately in the first inning, when he fielded Florida leadoff hitter Deacon Liput’s line drive off the left-field wall and gunned him out at second base. The play kept the Gators from getting a man in scoring position to start the game, and when Jonathan India hit a two-out opposite-field homer to right, it was only a solo shot.
“It kind of set the tone,” Walters said of his outfield assist. “And it took a run off that they probably would have scored.”
After the Gators added another run in the second, the Aggies put together the kind of inning that had eluded them in the first two games of the series. Hunter Coleman singled to left, Cole Bedford hit a one-out single to right to get runners on the corners, and then a balk by Florida starter Jack Leftwich allowed Coleman to score.
Next up, Walters sent the ninth pitch he saw from Leftwich off the base of the wall in right-center, driving in Bedford to tie the game. It was the first RBI of the series for an A&M hitter, and moments later George Janca singled home Walters to give the Aggies their first lead of the weekend.
Chandler Morris contributed an 11-pitch walk as the Aggies forced Leftwich to throw a whopping 39 pitches in the second.
“I just think that showed our toughness — we weren’t going to be denied today,” Coleman said. “We were on the barrel all weekend just hitting it right at them, so it was good to find some holes today.”
The Gators knotted the score at three in the top of the third, but Coleman answered with a 402-foot moonshot that hit off the glass of the Rec center in deep left to put the Aggies back ahead.
“That was a big confidence boost in our dugout,” Kolek said of the homer. “It was like, ‘We can beat these guys.’”
From then on, Kolek was masterful. He did not allow a hit in his final four innings of work, only facing two batters over the minimum in that stretch. He walked Liput with two outs in the seventh, but Nolan Hoffman got Nelson Maldonaldo to ground out to third to end the inning.
“He got it together in the third and fourth," Childress said of Kolek. "He just got better with each inning and I couldn’t be any more proud of the way he responded. He got on top of the baseball, got the fastball to the glove side inside on the right-handed hitters. He was fantastic — as good a start as we had all weekend long.”
Bedford added an insurance run in the sixth with a two-out solo home run off the right-field foul pole, and then the Aggies tacked on two more in the seventh as the Gators let a Coleman fly ball land in center field, allowing both Michael Helman and Braden Shewmake to cross the plate.
Nolan Hoffman pitched the final 2.1 innings scoreless to notch his tenth save of the season. He allowed two hits and struck out three.
“That’s why we love baseball — you don’t just get one game, you get three,” Kolek said. “Every day you get to throw that game from yesterday away and just come out and give it everything you’ve got today, and our team did a great job of that this week.”
The Aggies do not play a midweek game on Tuesday like they usually do, so they will be back on the field next in Fayetteville against No. 5 Arkansas. First pitch of the series opener on Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on the SEC Network.