Aggies overwhelmed early in uninspired loss to Longhorns, 8-3
Game #61: Texas 8, Texas A&M 2
Records: Texas (39-20), Texas A&M (40-21)
WP: Nolan Kingham (8-3)
LP: Mitchell Kilkenny (8-5)
Box Score
A three-spot in the first inning provided Texas with early momentum it never really relinquished as Texas A&M fell to the Longhorns, 8-3, in its second game of the Austin Regional.
Kody Clemens got things started with a three-run home run off A&M starter Mitchell Kilkenny and added another solo shot in the sixth, while Nolan Kingham scattered nine hits and three runs over 7.2 innings to send the Aggies to the loser’s bracket.
“Certainly the story of the night was Nolan Kingham. He was outstanding on the mound, did a wonderful job,” A&M head coach Rob Childress said after the game. “Their offense did an amazing job against Mitchell Kilkenny. Every mistake he made, they capitalized on, and we had no answer from an offensive standpoint against Kingham.”
The Horns got to Kilkenny early in the first. David Hamilton led off with a single up the middle and, after a hit-by-pitch, Clemens blasted an elevated slider to deep right that left the park in a hurry.
Kilkenny settled in a bit and put up back-to-back scoreless frames, but Texas scored two more off him in the fourth to end his night and proceeded to score two more in the fifth and another in the sixth to effectively put the Aggies out of the game.
The Aggies got on the board in the third on an RBI bunt single by Michael Helman, but Braden Shewmake followed with a groundout with two men on to end the inning without any further damage.
In the fourth, the Aggies got two men aboard with one out, but Allonte Wingate grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end the frame.
Pitching with a lead, Kingham attacked the strike zone with reckless abandon. He went to only three three-ball counts all night and threw 71 of his 96 pitches for strikes.
After Clemens led off the sixth with a homer off A&M reliever Dustin Saenz, Helman led off the bottom of the inning with a double to right and promptly scored on a Shewmake RBI single.
The Aggies churned out nine hits and had runners on base throughout the contest, but ultimately could not overcome the Longhorns’ hot start.
“We kind of beat ourselves,” said second baseman Michael Helman, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. “We just let him settle in, and from then on it kept going their way. We weren’t the team that we should be.”
The trio of Landon Miner, Chandler Jozwiak and Christian Roa combined to blank Texas over the final four innings, saving the Aggie bullpen for the two games they will need to win Sunday to force a winner-take-all regional finale on Monday.
Lefties Kaylor Chafin and Asa Lacy, along with righties Nolan Hoffman and Cason Sherrod — all of whom have been pitching superbly of late — have still not pitched in the Regional and should be fresh and ready to go. Childress indicated after the game that either Chafin or Lacy would get the start in the first game tomorrow, with the two righties first out of the bullpen.
“You better have a short memory if you’re going to come back through the loser’s bracket,” Childress said. “You’ve got a team in Indiana feeling good about themselves that won today and got to go home and rest. For us, we’re going to have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves real quick and show up tomorrow and do whatever it takes to find a way to win against Indiana. And worry about tomorrow night when we get to that.
The Aggies return to Disch-Falk Field Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. against Indiana. Another win over the Hoosiers would force a rematch with Texas at 8 p.m.
“This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve been through this,” Childress said. “Our guys have an awful lot of toughness. I’m looking forward to the opportunity tomorrow to come out and play Indiana. I know our players are, too. We’ve been through the SEC, and we’re as bruised and battered and calloused as any team in the country. We’ll certainly have a response tomorrow.”