Early exit from Big 12s exposes Aggies' flaws

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A&M's recurring mistakes in Bricktown leave concern over regionals

BOX SCORE: LINK

How do two of collegiate baseball's best pitchers fail to deliver on consecutive nights? Against subpar competition? How does a lineup that came back in a single series against one of the nation's best pitchers and a first team all-conference closer surrender meekly against two mediocre pitchers?

How does a team so hot stop dead in its tracks against the dregs of a depleted league?

How quickly the coin can turn. The Aggies, once winners of eight straight and 13 of 15, are stumbling into the NCAA Tournament after two consecutive losses.

A second 5-3 defeat in two Bricktown nights and a second loss in two tries against Kansas No. 3 starter Thomas Taylor turned A&M around and sent it back to College Station, leaving behind the dashed hopes of a national seed. Disappointing, yes, but despite Rob Childress' stated desire to bring home the trophy, the troublesome facts were not the end results but the why, and the who.

In a span of two days, the Aggies accomplished the following: Consecutive disappointing starts from their co-aces, seemingly a near-impossibility; head-shaking showings at the plate against a pair of mediocre pitchers; a scary outing from Kyle Martin on Thursday, and a failure to earn him a chance to get back on track the next night; a missed opportunity to get Rafael Pineda one more start before the team's week off; and a miserable lack of execution in key situations that could have A&M still playing.

The Aggies took an early 2-0 lead in this one, facing Taylor, against whom they managed just four hits and one run in Lawrence in a Sunday loss (also by a 5-3 score) earlier this season. With Ross Stripling on the mound, it seemed — as it should — the best medicine for a team that had failed itself in a disappointing and unexpected loss to Missouri the day before.

But Stripling couldn't hold it. Jacob House's first-inning, two-RBI double held for a single frame before a single and a home run allowed by Strip in the second tied the game. A&M failed to answer over the next two innings and the Jayhawks took advantage, lining three straight hits off the Aggie starter in the fourth to plate two and take a 4-2 advantage.

Tyler Naquin and Matt Juengel teamed up to tack on the Ags' final run in the top of the fifth. From there, Krey Bratsen struck out swinging with a man on second to end the sixth; Mikey Reynolds grounded into a double play with one on and none out in the seventh, killing a potential rally; A&M put two men on to open the eighth and then stranded them with three consecutive outs; and the Aggies botched a potential ninth-inning rally.

Stripling took the complete game loss (8.0 IP), allowing all five runs earned but striking out six and composing himself in the late innings to give the Ags a chance. The Jayhawks rode Thomas to the finish, as Kansas pinned all its hopes on him, and despite his throwing 160 pitches, A&M failed to take advantage.

In light of what we saw these last two days, the bottom line is that there are concerns to address with this team. More often than not, A&M cannot hit hurlers with solid off-speed pitches. It's the hidden reason the Aggies have struggled against so many statistically subpar starters this season ... guys whose fastballs might top out around 90, but can come back with a solid changeup. Just like Taylor.

Or Blake Holovach. Missouri's inconsistent lefty rode the same pitch to 5.1 solid innings against the Ags one day ago and reliever Jeff Emens took it from there to the finish. A&M swung over and in front of enough pitches on Friday to hand Taylor a season-high nine strikeouts. The inability to score runs against pitchers that don't rely on the fastball could do the Aggies in.

Mikey Reynolds is another sore spot. He missed eight starts, sidelined with injury, to end the regular season and returned at the start of the tournament only to go 2-for-13 in three games, fail to work the count against the walk-prone Holovach and pop up a needed bunt with two on and no outs (and A&M trailing by two) in the ninth inning of this game. It's clear after these three games that Reynolds, a prototypical leadoff hitter and one of A&M's very solid all-around players, needs more time to get re-accustomed to the game.

Perhaps these next few days of practice combined with the games in OKC will do the trick. Having him set the tone for the Naquin-Juengel-House-Stein combo that follows is essential ... and so is laying down a bunt in a crucial situation.

And the execution. In the two losses in Bricktown, the Aggies stranded 14 runners, struck out 18 times and scored two total runs after the fifth inning (and zero after the sixth). Not going to cut it against any opponent, as the tournament showed. After Reynolds' inability to get the bunt down in the ninth, Naquin smacked a ball as hard as he could, but sadly right at KU's second baseman. It turned into a game-ending double play. Had the runners been bunted over, even if Naquin hit the exact same ball, Juengel would have had a final chance with two outs.

Very few teams, if any, enter this postseason without a single question mark. The coaches also have time to diagnose what went wrong, address it and refocus their guys heading into regionals. If the Aggies have demonstrated anything this season, it's that short memory and focus are not an issue.

What is an issue is the feeling after these two games that, unless this is a blip on A&M's trajectory and it reverts quickly to the form it showed in Stillwater, the Aggie starters can't allow more than a run or two or the season will end quickly, and unceremoniously. Naquin said so in fewer words in the post-game press conference, noting that the team can't expect Stripling and Michael Wacha to go out and only give up one run every game. It's incredibly unlikely that the pair will have back-to-back games like this again, but a pick-me-up needs to be there when one does.

Now the Aggies await the regional assignments. The possibility that A&M played its way into a No. 2 seed in Rice's regional is very minute, though it exists. More likely, the Ags knocked themselves down from having an easy 2-through-4 regional group to a shuffled, slightly tougher one. Only time will tell. The good news is that the regionals carry a blank slate, and this team is still the one that closed the season on a tear.

One can only hope these last two days got everything else out of its system.