No. 15 Aggies complete sweep of NKU in come-from-behind fashion, 10-7

Game #16: No. 15 Texas A&M 10, Northern Kentucky 7
Records: Texas A&M (12-4), Northern Kentucky (8-7)
WP: Will Johnston (1-0)
LP: Matthew Lopez (1-1)
Box Score

A late-game comeback gives the Aggies their fifth win of the week.

Despite a rough Sunday from Aggie pitching, No. 15 Texas A&M came back to pick up its second sweep of the season by taking down Northern Kentucky, 10-7.

“This game’s really not built to beat the same team three days in a row,” A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “It’s definitely not built to win five games in a week, so I’m really proud of the way we played today.”

Chris Cortez got the start on the mound for A&M and was never able to stay in control of his pitches. Pulled after 2.1 innings, Cortez finished with four runs allowed on four hits and two walks.

Although the Aggies had to come back to complete the sweep, the offense got off to a hot start in the first inning.

A&M used three RBI singles from Jack Moss, Austin Bost and Kaeden Kent in the first inning to build an early 3-0 lead.

However, NKU battled back and utilized three run-scoring singles of its own to claim a 4-3 lead in the fourth. The Norse built some separation in the fifth with a bases-clearing double from shortstop Noah Fisher to extend the lead to 7-3.

Then the Aggies started to chip away.

A two-run single from Jordan Thompson in the fifth and a sacrifice fly from Bost in the sixth cut the deficit to one.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Aggies regained the lead following Thompson scoring on a wild pitch and Hank Bard’s sacrifice fly to left.

The Maroon & White received some insurance in the eighth, scoring two more runs and increasing their lead to 10-7.

Despite an overall forgetful day from Aggie arms, they received a good performance from Will Johnston to keep them in the game. Johnston loaded the bases in the ninth but was able to battle out of the jam and secure the victory.

“That’s not how you want to finish it,” Johnston said of the last inning. “For everyone on the pitching staff, we’re just too good to be doing stuff like that, and if you pitch behind in the count, bad things are going to happen. We play too good of teams to be doing that, so obviously not what I wanted to do and glad we got out of it.”

CJ Smith, TexAgs

Hunter Haas and Jack Moss led the way offensively with three hits apiece.

Johnston tossed 2.1 innings, allowing no runs on no hits while punching out four batters.

“Willy [Johnston] is incredible,” Moss said. “We have all the confidence in him and really whoever anybody that comes out of that bullpen.”

Schlossnagle hopes that the offensive performance will give the Aggies some confidence for the upcoming games.

“In baseball, it doesn’t feel good to look up there and see you’re hitting .180,” Schlossnagle said. “If you’re not a .180 hitter, you have to have more confidence. You have to believe in yourself. You have to have faith. You have to trust in who you are as a player, so I think our guys hopefully got some of that this weekend.”

The Aggies will need the confidence going into the next week, traveling to face Houston on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. CT before hosting top-ranked LSU in the first SEC series of the year.