Tigers take series as No. 1 Aggies drop second straight 6-4 decision

Game #47: Louisiana State 6, No. 1 Texas A&M 4
Records: Texas A&M (39-8, 15-8), Louisiana State (31-17, 9-14)
WP: Christian Little (2-0)
LP: Shane Sdao (3-1)
Save: Gavin Guidry (2)
Box Score

BATON ROUGE, La. — Same song, different verse.

The final score was the same as the first.

On a Louisiana Saturday night, No. 1 Texas A&M dropped another 6-4 decision to the LSU Tigers at Alex Box Stadium.

Much like Friday's 6-4 loss, the Aggies were plagued by free bases and defensive miscues.

But Saturday saw their offense falter mightily.

"Everybody talks about, 'Well, there's probably going to be a weekend where things don't go our way,'" said A&M skipper Jim Schlossnagle postgame. "Yeah. It's going to happen. The most important thing is that we play well tomorrow. That's part of it.

"Every team in this league can win a national title, so it's just a matter of who plays the best on the given day."

A statistically high-powered Aggie offense has been neutralized by the Purple & Gold strike pumpers.

On Saturday, starter Luke Holman and right-handed reliever Christian Little racked up a whopping 16 punchouts.

After A&M's first-inning three-spot, that duo kept the Aggies in check.

"Their pitchers are good," Schlossnagle said. "They have good pitching. They haven't pitched up to their capability, at least numbers-wise, to this point, but they executed pitches — and tough pitches."

No situation was more frustrating for the Maroon & White than a fourth-inning bases-loaded scenario with nobody out. Even after back-to-back walks, Holman responded emphatically to strike out the next three Aggies he faced on just nine pitches.

The LSU starter fanned 10 total across five innings.

Behind Holman, Little mixed a high-90s fastball with a mid-80s offspeed pitch to keep A&M off balance until the ninth.

"They just executed pitches whenever they needed to," Jace LaViolette said. "Just putting the ball where it needed to be and making it tough on us.

"It happens. It's baseball. People don't understand that, but I think we'll be OK. We'll be just fine."

Ali Camarillo's fourth-inning leadoff single remained the last Aggie hit until Ted Burton's pinch-hit knock to open the final frame. 

Between then, self-inflicted wounds hurt the Ags.

After Justin Lamkin allowed four straight two-out hits in the third — including long balls from Tommy White and Jared Jones — Shane Sdao kept the game even at 3-3 until the seventh.

Kelii Horvath, TexAgs

With a single in the fourth inning, Ali Camarillo extended his streak of reaching base safely to 33 games.

That's when A&M's left-handed reliever ran out of gas.

"What happened was I just got a little tired," Sdao admitted. "It's my first time sweating in a long time. I felt like I sweated a lot tonight."

He walked nine-hitter Alex Milazzo to start the inning.

With one out, the reliable Evan Aschenbeck entered and promptly got a groundout.

But the uncharacteristic nature of the weekend continued when an Aschenbeck wild pitch snuck by Jackson Appel to give LSU the lead.

In the symmetry of Friday's ballgame, the Tigers again never relinquished the advantage.

Instead, A&M gifted them a pair of unearned insurance markers an inning later following a Travis Chestnut error.

"We've put together a good season. We're going to continue to put together a great season, but we're not going to be perfect," Schlossnagle said. "We care about every game, but nothing has changed. We prepare the same way."

Even still, like a night ago, A&M had its chance in the ninth.

Braden Montgomery even stood in scoring position as the potential tying run with two outs.

But Appel's hard-hit fly ball fell into the glove of center fielder Paxton Kling to send a rowdy crowd of 11,751 home happy.

"Look at what we've done the last two days," Schlossnagle said. "We bring the freaking go-ahead run to the plate in both games. That says a lot about our team. I'm proud of our team."

Indeed, A&M is getting its first taste of adversity.

It is the nation's top-ranked team's first series loss since a mid-March trip to Gainesville.

It's also the first time the Aggies have lost consecutive games all year.

Further, key contributors Ted Burton and possibly Gavin Grahovac appear to be playing at less than 100 percent.

Yet the 12th Man can take solace in the following:

"If you lose back-to-back games in [June], your season is over," Schlossnagle said. "We didn't design adversity; adversity happens.

"If we're going to believe in the word 'good', then we're going to have to put it to use. ... I already know how our team is going to react, whether we win tomorrow or not."

The response begins Sunday as the series concludes at 1 p.m. CT.