Sophomore Christian Roa proving he belongs in the starting rotation

The Aggies' Sunday starter role has been up for grabs multiple times in this young 2019 season. First, a host of talented pitchers were competing for the spot coming out of spring practice before freshman Jonathan Childress won the job. When Childress injured his throwing elbow in the third week of the season and had season-ending surgery, the final weekend spot in the rotation opened up again.

After Christian Roa masterfully shut out No. 1 Vanderbilt for seven stellar innings to cap off a huge series win, the Sunday role could be set in stone for the remainder of the season.

“It was awesome to watch – he had all four of his pitches working. Anywhere he wanted to throw the ball, he was throwing it,” said outfielder Cam Blake. “He was unbelievable to fill that role like he did. Nobody really knew who was going to take over the Sunday role, and to solidify himself in that spot he had to be ready to go. He works extremely hard, so I’m really happy to see him have success.”

Roa, a sophomore from Memorial High School in Houston (the same school that produced former Aggie standouts Boomer White and Walker Pennington), held the loaded, hot-hitting Commodore lineup to a mere three hits in seven innings, striking out seven and walking three.

Bradley Countie, TexAgs

Christian Roa dominated the Vandy lineup last Sunday.

Vanderbilt, which scored a combined 14 runs in the first two games of the series, only seriously threatened in the sixth, when Roa escaped a second-and-third, one-out situation with a strikeout and a groundout.

“I felt good really good,” Roa said. “The defense was making a lot of plays behind me and Mikey was doing really good behind the plate, so I just knew my job was to throw it over the plate and good things would happen. I just trusted my defense behind me, Mikey Hoehner behind the plate, and Coach Childress in the dugout. When we have that team dynamic going like that, it’s really hard to stop.”

Roa has made strides since getting to A&M as a freshman. He made 14 appearances last year, totaling an unspectacular 4.30 ERA and only 12 strikeouts in 14.2 innings. He relied mostly on his fastball as his offspeed pitches had not yet developed to the point where he was comfortable using them to finish off hitters.

“I did have my other pitches and would try to mix it up, but the fastball was my main pitch,” Roa said. “Developing my other pitches, being able to throw them in different counts, and having more confidence in each one of them has been the biggest difference for me this year. It came down to a lot of reps and learning the mental side of it. Understanding how I needed to position my body and working with our coaches to become an all-around better player.”

Roa spent some of his summer pitching in the Northwoods League, where he got more comfortable with his secondary pitches and gained more experience facing collegiate hitters. He continued developing his arsenal in the fall and spring, and now he is a hitter’s worst nightmare when he is at this best.

“He’s got four pitches, and he can throw them all for strikes,” said shortstop Braden Shewmake. “At that point, I don’t know what you do as a hitter. Do you look for one of them and hope they don’t throw one of the other three? He threw the fastball to both sides of the plate, changeup wherever he wanted to, dropped the big curveball in, and could put people away with his slider. That’s tough to hit – I don’t care who you are.”

No matter what his role has been throughout his career, Roa has always been regarded as a hard worker, which he says he got from his parents. Rob Childress has pointed to Roa since the fall as one of the main leaders of the pitching staff along with John Doxakis, Asa Lacy and Chandler Jozwiak.

Roa started the year making six appearances out of the bullpen with mixed success, but since he was inserted into the weekend rotation in the Gonzaga series, he has allowed only eight hits and one run in 11.1 innings of work.

“Every year we can say we don’t really care where we pitch, but everybody knows you want to be a starter at some point,” says Jozwiak, a fellow sophomore and one of Roa’s roommates. “To see him go to the bullpen knowing Childress won the job, do what he did, struggle a little bit, but then come back and have great success is really good. It proves to everybody that hard work pays off and you have to trust the process even if it doesn’t go your way at first. You have to keep going, keep working hard, and that’s one thing he’s really good at − no matter what happens, he’s always going to work hard, and it’s paying off right now.”

In each of the last two weekends, Rob Childress chose not to name a Sunday starter, leaving it “TBA” and deciding who to start in game three depending on how the first two went. Because of this, Roa did not know for certain until Sunday morning that he would start against Vanderbilt.

But he did, and for at least another week, “TBA” will definitely not show up on this weekend’s probable starters.

“He’s just got a little bit different attitude up there – he competes,” Shewmake says. “He’s going to make you hit his stuff, he’s not going to nibble. He’s going to throw it over the plate and he’s going to make you hit it. He’s got a little more life on his fastball than he did last year, and his offspeed stuff has really improved. Christian is a good addition to the double-headed lefty monster we have at the top of the rotation.”

“He’s a guy who’s going to attack the zone, and that’s what you need out of a Sunday guy,” Cam Blake said. “The team who gives up the least freebies is probably going to win the game, and he gives us a great chance to do that.”

Roa will try to notch his third-straight solid start this weekend against Kentucky in the Aggies’ first SEC road series of the season.