Four homers, clutch defense propel No. 1 A&M past No. 20 Georgia, 5-2

Game #42: No. 1 Texas A&M 5, No. 20 Georgia 2
Records: Texas A&M (37-5, 14-5), Georgia (30-11, 9-10)
WP: Ryan Prager (8-0)
LP: Charlie Goldstein (4-1)
Save: Evan Aschenbeck (7)
Box Score

He’s known as “Teddy Two Bags.”

But on Friday night, Ted Burton became “Teddy Two Bombs” as he smashed a pair of solo home runs in No. 1 Texas A&M’s 5-2 victory over No. 20 Georgia.

Indeed, in front of a Blue Bell Park crowd of 7,968, Burton stole the show in the opener of a series that features three of college baseball’s best.

“It’s great,” Burton said postgame. “I’m just happy that I was able to do my part and help our team come out on top.”

The Michigan transfer’s first homer was a second-inning moonshot.

Two innings later, he launched a 440-leadoff missile to left center.

Those big swings off Bulldog starter Leighton Finley accounted for just two of the six combined home runs.

With the wind howling out to left field, all seven of the game’s runs were scored via the long ball.

“It was a very well-played baseball game by both teams,” A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “We happened to get a few more swings than they did. I thought both teams pitched really, really well, given the conditions.

“When a few mistakes were made, they were hit. They made one or two more than we did.”

Fortunately for the Aggies, they got a two-run laser beam from Jackson Appel off Charlie Goldstein in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead.

Gavin Grahovac added a seventh-inning leadoff job on Josh Roberge’s first offering of the game to conclude the evening’s scoring.

“You don’t want to try to hit home runs,” Burton explained. “You want them to be accidents, but we don’t hate when they catch the jetstream, for sure.”

Beyond their four round-trippers, the Aggies also received sterling defense and another quality start from ace Ryan Prager.

The A&M lefty battled through six innings of two-run ball. He allowed just five hits and two walks and punched out six.

Perhaps the only two mistakes he made all night both left the yard.

“They kind of say that solo shots won’t beat you, so limit the free bases and then make them earn it,” Prager explained. “That’s what we’re trying to do this weekend.”

The first came on the game’s fifth pitch as Charlie Condon took Prager deep.

But the Georgia superstar does that to nearly everybody. He now has 27 on the year.

Condon finished 1-for-4.

“He’s a good player, and we all knew that coming in,” Prager said. “It’s just like the wind. You know who you’re playing against, but it doesn’t change how you play. We still have full belief in ourselves.”

In the fifth, Dylan Goldstein mashed a two-out homer to right.

Beyond that, the Aggies had the upper hand in an unlikely low-scoring affair that lasted just three hours and three minutes.

A huge part of holding down the Dawgs was the A&M defense.

“It was awesome,” Schlossnagle said. “That’s an undervalued part of our team.”

Kelly Cothern, TexAgs

Gavin Grahovac’s seventh-inning blast was his 16th of the season, good for second for a freshman in the category. 

Grahovac had multiple brilliant plays. Caden Sorrell made a diving grab in left to end the eighth.

Even Georgia center fielder Clayton Chadwick took away extra bases from Jace LaViolette with a leaping catch at the wall.

However, the biggest play of the evening occurred in the seventh.

Again, Burton was the star.

“He’s a good athlete, man,” Schlossnagle said of Burton. “He played other places in the field. He has really worked hard at first base.”

After inserting Evan Aschenbeck into the ballgame with one out and one on, Corey Collins crushed a 98 mph one-hopper right at the Aggie first baseman.

Burton stepped on the bag and fired to Ali Camarillo at second to cut down Sebastian Murillo.

On that play, he was “Teddy Two Outs.”

“Burton couldn’t even throw the first half of the season,” Schlossnagle recalled. “You have to give our trainer, Kalie Swain, a lot of credit for that, getting him back to where he can even make that play.”

From there, Aschenbeck did Aschenbeck things to seal an eight-out save on just 30 pitches.

The Aggie victory, combined with No. 4 Kentucky’s loss at No. 24 South Carolina, moves the Maroon & White within one game of first place in the SEC.

They’ll have the chance to shrink that deficit even further on Saturday.

Because, thanks to the threat of rain on Sunday, Burton might take on yet another nickname.

He’ll be “Teddy Two Games.”

The doubleheader begins at 1 p.m. CT.