Hunter Coleman, Zach DeLoach power Aggies over Lamar, 10-7

Game #27: No. 10 Texas A&M 10, Lamar 7
Records: Texas A&M (22-5, 5-1), Lamar (9-15, 2-7),
WP: Brandon Birdsell (1-0)
LP: Dallas Jack (0-3)
Box Score

After a weekend sweep of the Kentucky Wildcats on the road, the tenth ranked Texas A&M Aggies returned home to Olsen Field and knocked off the Lamar Cardinals, 10-7. The story of the last week and a half has been the rise in offensive fire power from the Maroon and White, and on a perfect Tuesday evening, that narrative continued.

After escaping a bases loaded jam in the top of the first, the Aggies put a run on the scoreboard in the bottom of the frame when Braden Shewmake hit a sacrifice fly to center field. While Lamar would tie the game briefly in the second, the A&M bats roared to life in the third inning.

Zach DeLoach, who came into the game hitting just .159, smoked a change up into the visitor’s bullpen to start the fireworks and give A&M a 2-1 edge.

“The coaches gave me an opportunity. I’ve been working hard to try and get my swing back to the way that it needs to be,” said DeLoach. “I figured some things out... I felt good tonight and just [stuck] to our approach of hitting up the middle and driving the ball.”

DeLoach (1-4, 2 RBIs) hit the ball extremely hard tonight, as did several of his teammates. Mikey Hoehner would bring in the third A&M run in the fourth when he grounded into a fielder’s choice. With two outs, the Aggies kept the inning alive and after a costly walk to Aaron Walters, Hunter Coleman (2-4, 4RBIs) walloped a stinging line drive to the wall in right-center field that scored Walters and made it 4-1 Aggies.

“That is going to help with the confidence,” said a smiling Coleman. “Some of the mistakes I’ve made so far are just early off the ball, so I made that adjustment and [stuck] to our approach, and that’s to dominate the fastball away.”

Coleman’s loud night at the plate would continue, but not before Braden Shewmake drove in another RBI and former A&M C/1B Jorge Gutierrez hit a two-run home run for the Cardinals, making it a 5-3 game in favor of the home nine.

With the game suddenly a lot tighter, the Aggies looked to answer in the bottom of the sixth. They didn’t disappoint. With the bases full of Maroon jerseys, Hunter Coleman once against stepped to the plate and delivered another scorching line drive into the right center field gap, clearing the bases to give the Aggies an 8-3 lead and netting Coleman his first triple of the season.

“Another great night. [Coleman] had a great weekend and he’s just building off of that,” said head coach Rob Childress. “He’s playing with a lot of confidence, as are a lot of hitters up and down the lineup.”

Mintie Betts, TexAgs

Hunter Coleman had a multi-hit game for the Aggies and drove in four runs.

DeLoach and Shewmake would add one more RBI each (giving Shewmake an even 30 for the season), and the Aggies would total 10 runs in all.

Lamar attempted a valiant comeback in the 9th off of closer Kasey Kalich. The Cardinals roughed up the Aggie right hander for four runs (only one of them earned) and closed the gap to 10-7, but eventually the flame thrower from Victoria, Texas would strike out the side and clinch the 22nd win on the season for the Ags.

Texas A&M will now turn their attention to another SEC East opponent in the Missouri Tigers, who come to town for a three-game set beginning on Friday night.

“They are going to be far and away the best collection of pitchers that we’ve faced in SEC play. They’re playing with a lot of confidence and took two out of three from Ole Miss this last weekend,” said Childress.

The Aggies will look to extend their seven game winning streak as they send their ace, John Doxakis, to the mound on Friday night with first pitch expected at 6:30 p.m.