Chestnut's homer highlights Texas A&M's series-clinching win over Missouri
Game #35: Texas A&M 13, Missouri 1
Records: Texas A&M (22-13, 7-7), Missouri (21-13, 4-10)
WP: Evan Aschenbeck (5-0)
LP: Rorik Maltrud (1-1)
Box Score
Just like yesterday, a nine-run explosion had all but decided the outcome for Texas A&M.
Unlike yesterday, the game ended much sooner.
Travis Chestnut roasted a towering 441-foot homer to make a run-rule only inevitable as the Aggies thoroughly defeated Missouri to clinch their third-straight Southeastern Conference series victory on Friday night, 13-1.
For the first time this season, the Aggies now stand .500 (7-7) in league play.
They’ll play for the sweep on Saturday at 12 p.m. CT.
“I don't know what that was. I don't know where that came from, but I'm happy for him,” Brett Minnich said of Chestnut. “That was really big on him.”
A majority of the 5,942 in attendance at Blue Bell Park would likely agree that Chestnut's titanic swing seemed to come out of nowhere.
A&M was riding a 10-1 lead after the Tigers scored their lone run on a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
The excitement from the earlier outbreak had cooled by then. A victory seemed assured.
But Chestnut drilled the nail deeper in Missouri’s coffin.
Entering the outfield on a defensive change, the Pflugerville native obliterated the first pitch he saw off his bat at 105 mph to score three runs for his first career homer.
“I didn’t have the take sign, but [Schlossnagle] said, ‘Make sure you get your pitch,’” Chestnut said. “And then after the [pitching change] he said, ‘Same thing. Make sure you get your pitch.’ I thought I handled that pretty well, and obviously I did.”
Josh Stewart provided a solid foundation for A&M as he received the first starting nod of his career. He struck out one while holding the Tigers scoreless through two innings, doing exactly what was asked of him.
“We wanted to get Josh Stewart to start and see if he could get us one time through the order, and that's exactly what he did,” Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle said.
After an early departure on Tuesday, Evan Aschenbeck proved brilliant against the Tigers. The junior lefty whiffed a career-high eight batters in his longest outing of the season (5.0 IP).
He also walked none through an efficient 89-pitch showing that earned his fifth win.
“Evan was as outstanding as he has been all year,” Schlossnagle said. “You know, Tuesday night was a blip on the radar screen, but I thought he came back and did a really nice job in a tough environment to pitch with the wind blowing the way it was.”
It was deja vu all over again for the Aggies in the fifth inning.
Hunter Haas kicked off another eruption with a single through the right side that put Hank Bard in position to score on a throwing error. Minnich then crushed a three-run bomb over center field, his fifth of the year to score Moss and Haas.
Moss ended a perfect 4-for-4 with a walk.
Not to be outdone, Jace LaViolette kept the fire burning with a two-run blast. Haas — who finished 3-for-5 — added an RBI single before Trevor Werner’s two-run single ended another demoralizing inning for the Tigers.
The only thing noticeably different from Thursday was that the Tigers were sent limping back into the locker room much earlier because of Chestnut.
