Texas A&M advances after dramatic comeback against West Virginia, 11-10

A never-quit attitude combined with late game heroics made for a dramatic finish in Morgantown on Sunday.

A game that started at 11:00 a.m. and didn’t finish until after 5:00 saw the Aggies walk it off on a two out grand slam to defeat West Virginia on their home field to advance to the Regional final.

The Aggies had several opportunitiees to score throughout the contest, the first of which came in the top of the first. Consecutive walks issued to Bryce Blaum and Cam Blake and a double steal set up runners on second and third with one out and clean-up hitter Mikey Hoehner at the plate. Hoehner and Will Frizzell would each strike out to put an end to the threat.

Christian Roa had the start for Texas A&M and ran into trouble early. In the top of the second, a single and a home run from Kevin Brophy gave the Mountaineers a 2-0 lead. They would strike again in the fourth after two hits and two errors scored two more runs, prompting Rob Childress to make the call to the bullpen.

Elisa Schmitt, TexAgs

Chris Weber remained in the game after a two hour rain delay, but struggled after play resumed.

Chris Weber came into the game with a runner on first and one out in the inning. Mikey Hoehner would catch the West Virginia baserunner stealing for the second out, and Weber would put an end to the inning with a strikeout with the Mountaineers now up, 4-0.

After a near-two hour rain delay, Chris Weber was back on the mound in the top of the fifth. An infield single set up another two-run homer to extend the Mountaineer lead. A double and single later, Childress made the move to reliever Bryce Miller. A double play would end the top of the fifth, but the Aggies trailed by six at the midway point in the game.

The Aggies would finally plate a run in the bottom of the fifth. Consecutive errors by the West Virginia defense put two runners on and allowed a run to score on a routine ground ball off the bat of Braden Shewmake.

The Mountaineers would appear to break the game open in the seventh after scoring two more runs and growing their lead to eight runs.

But Texas A&M wasn’t ready to give up yet. In the bottom of the seventh, the Aggies would put together a huge inning. An opposite-field grand slam from Logan Foster highlighted a six-run inning to put A&M down by just two runs with two innings left to play.

After West Virginia added one more insurance run, the Aggies would be down by three runs going into the bottom of the ninth. Logan Foster would open up the inning with a leadoff double, but Hunter Coleman would fly out in the next at-bat. After an Aaron Walters walk, the Mountaineers would get their second out of the final frame on a Ty Coleman strikeout.

Braden Shewmake would walk to load the bases with Bryce Blaum coming to the plate. On a 3-2 pitch, Blaum hit a hanging slider over the wall in left field to walk it off for the Aggies in dramatic fashion.

The Aggies will now have to defeat Duke twice in order to advance past Morgantown. They’ll have their first opportunity shortly, with first pitch against the Blue Devils scheduled for 6:30 p.m.