Texas A&M escapes Penn with Kellner's ninth-inning walk-off double

Game #5: No. 24 Texas A&M 1, Penn 0
Records: Texas A&M (5-0, 0-0), Penn (0-1, 0-0)
WP: Josh Stewart (1-0)
LP: Thomas Shurtleff (0-1)
Box Score

First steps are important.

Whether you’re learning to walk or tracking a fly ball, they can be very memorable.

For Penn centerfielder Ryan Taylor, his first step — which was in on a ninth-inning fly ball — allowed 24th-ranked Texas A&M to escape with a 1-0 walk-off win in front of 6,235 at Blue Bell Park on Friday night.

The moment belonged to Aggie shortstop Boston Kellner, who drove in Sawyer Farr with the sixth extra-base hit of his young career.

“I just tried to keep calm up at the plate, make sure I knew this was just another at-bat,” the freshman said. “Once I hit it, I knew I hit it pretty well, and once I saw it go over, made sure that Sawyer touched home before I started going crazy, but that was a pretty cool moment.”

Prior to Kellner’s first game-winning swing, Bear Harrison’s leadoff walk and Travis Chestnut’s sacrifice bunt set the stage.

It was A&M’s first hit with men in scoring position in nine tries. Further, the Aggies finished 2-for-13 with runners on base as they stranded nine.

“When he came up to bat, I felt really good,” A&M skipper Michael Earley said. “He’s a really good player, and when he’s up in that moment, there’s no part of me that’s like, ‘Ah, we got a freshman up.’”

Through eight innings, mighty were the Penn men who held the baseball.

Quaker starter Jake Moss departed after throwing 92 pitches in 4.1 scoreless innings. Behind him, Thomas Shurtleff allowed just two base runners before the ninth.

“I felt like we had a really good plan,” Earley said of his offense. “(Moss) has a plus-ride fastball, which we kind of struggled with the other day. He was doing a really good job of mixing a cutter and a slider off of it, and then a split. He was commanding three-and-a-half pitches.

“I didn’t hate our at-bats off him. We just didn’t get hits. We didn’t square consistent balls up. When we had some guys on base, there’s just some moments where maybe one at-bat got away.”

Only Jake Duer and Terrence Kiel II (both 2-for-4) registered multi-hit nights. A&M finished with only one extra-base hit — Kellner’s magical and memorable double.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

In total, Texas A&M pitching allowed just four hits and no walks in nine innings, punching out 10 Quakers.

On the other side, Penn was held to four total hits as Shane Sdao, Ethan Darden and Josh Stewart combined to blank the Quakers.

Making his second start of the season, Sdao was much sharper and utilized a cutter-sweeper combo to work into the eighth while punching out seven and not issuing a walk.

“That’s definitely more of who I am, for sure,” the southpaw said. “I felt very refreshed after this outing because I felt like I had all my stuff, and I had what I needed to get done to go through those seven. Definitely could have gone more, but I think what was best for the team was Darden to come in there and shut things down, which he did, and I’m very happy about today.”

Jay Secretarski’s leadoff single chased the Aggie starter, but Darden picked him off to skirt danger in the eighth.

Another leadoff base runner in the ninth — Davis Baker’s second single — was ultimately left standing on third as Stewart kept it deadlocked in his first appearance of the season.

That’s when a kid delivered.

“That wouldn’t have happened if Shane, Ethan and Stewy didn’t shove tonight,” Kellner said. “They did an absolutely amazing job, so they should be getting just as much credit because they did amazing.”

His first walk-off served as the first step towards a second series victory of the season.

A&M and Penn resume their three-game set at 2 p.m. CT on Saturday.

NOTE
Second baseman Chris Hacopian did not play on Friday and has now missed three consecutive games with what has been described as a “stiff back.” Postgame, Earley spoke about Hacopian’s status:

“Same issue. He went through a little bit of hitting in the cage today, took a little bit of ground balls, ran a little bit. Still progressing. Tomorrow, I’d say is up in the air. Feel a little better about Sunday, feel even better about Tuesday. So to me, it’s just day-to-day right now, but he has had some great days in a row.”