LaViolette's record-setting swing gets lost in 14-11 loss to Kentucky

Game #26: Kentucky 14, Texas A&M 11
Records: Texas A&M (13-12, 1-7), Kentucky (16-9, 3-5)
WP: Tommy Skelding (1-0)
LP: Justin Lamkin (1-3)
Save: James McCoy (1)
Box Score

There's good news and bad news.

Good news: Texas A&M's dormant offense appears to have awoken.

Bad news: The Aggie pitching staff has fallen asleep at the wheel.

That culminated in a frustrating and excruciatingly long 14-11 loss to Kentucky at Blue Bell Park on Saturday afternoon.

"I believe in those guys. I trust in them," A&M head coach Michael Earley said. "Baseball's tough. It's tough to maintain stuff like that throughout the course of a year. I feel good about them. I trust in them. I believe in them. They'll be better tomorrow, and they'll continue to get better moving forward."

Along with seven runs on Friday night, the Wildcats have scored 21 runs in 18 innings despite A&M previously owning a 3.25 staff ERA.

Saturday's four-hour affair required 14 total pitchers — six Aggies, eight Wildcats — and saw Olsen Field turn into a launching pad as nine home runs left the yard.

Yet it was more uncharacteristic pitching futility that dampened what should've been a joyous occasion.

Finally, Jace LaViolette summited A&M's program home run record with a first-inning solo shot.

The 57th of his career, the junior from Katy nudged Daylan Holt's 56 into second place.

"Nothing else matters other than winning," LaViolette said. "Everything is cool and all, but if you don't win, who cares? That's just kind of how I think of it.

"I'm blessed and honored to have done this, and it's amazing, but at the end of the day, we didn't win."

History came two batters before destiny as Caden Sorrell, in his return to the lineup after missing the first 25 games with a hamstring injury, hit a sky-scraping two-run homer that staked A&M to an early 3-1 lead.

LaViolette and Sorrell accounted for the first of five A&M home runs but were reduced to footnotes.

"I've been waiting for this since Opening Day and even before that, since Omaha last year," Sorrell said. "It was just an amazing feeling to be out there with my guys and finally playing baseball again."

That's due to the overall ineffectiveness of the Aggie hurlers.

"We hit too many guys, especially up in the count," Earley lamented. "Too many free passes. Period. I mean, they had a lot of runners on base a lot. That's just not conducive to success."

A&M plunked six Wildcats and walked two more. Those freebies turned into six Kentucky runs.

Starter Justin Lamkin surrendered seven runs across five innings. Clayton Freshcorn coughed up three without recording an out.

Luke Jackson allowed a run in 0.1 of an inning. Caden McCoy was tagged for two in two frames, while Brad Rudis served up the final homer of the day — Ethan Hindle's solo blast with two outs in the eighth.

"I just haven't seen that all year," Earley said of his pitching staff. "We'll be better tomorrow. Period. They'll be better tomorrow, and they'll be better moving forward."

The teeter-totter contest threatened to become a laugher as Kentucky scratched across six in a 34-minute top of the sixth on just three singles. Hit-by-pitches and walks fueled an inferno that burned the Aggies and staked the Wildcats to an 11-6 lead.

However, A&M kept battling.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Five different Aggies recorded a home run on Saturday, including a grand slam from Bear Harrison.

Bear Harrison's seventh-inning grand slam drew the Maroon & White within a run, but Kentucky scored three off McCoy and Rudis in the ensuing half-inning.

Trailing 14-10 in the bottom of the ninth, A&M got one run closer on Terrence Kiel II's bases-loaded walk with two outs.

Yet Sorrell, representing the potential winning run, flew out to right as Kentucky right-hander James McCoy earned a one-out save.

"I knew he'd have a good game and be productive. I couldn't think of a better guy to have up there for the last at-bat," Earley said of Sorrell. "It was a really good matchup for him. Baseball's hard, and he didn't get him."

Joining LaViolette, Sorrell and Harrison with round-trippers were Wyatt Henseler (a third-inning solo job) and Ben Royo (a two-run shot in the fourth).

Despite plating 11 runs on 11 hits, the Aggies failed to fully cash in. They left a dozen, including seven across the final three frames.

"We just got to play baseball," LaViolette said. "We just have to keep going, have fun and play together and just keep being a team. The only people that matter are the 56 guys in (the clubhouse), and that's about it. As long as we stay together and just keep having fun, then I think everything will be OK."

Now 1-7 vs. the SEC, a mixed-bag weekend is the last thing Earley & Co. needed.

Indeed, it magnifies Sunday's 1 p.m. CT rubber match even more. "Must win" is an apt descriptor, and that's far from good news.

"For us, we're playing every game like it's Game 7," Earley said. "We're going to come back tomorrow, and you're going to see the same type of energy, the same type of fight. We're going to come out and try to win a series."