Game #20: No. 23 Texas A&M 9, Texas State 6
Records: Texas A&M (17-3, 1-2), Texas State (12-8, 0-3)
WP: Gavin Lyons (2-0)
LP: Will Canalichio (0-1)
Save: Clayton Freshcorn (4)
Box Score
March is a month of madness.
Except the midweek action at Blue Bell Park was at least a little maddening.
On St. Patrick’s Day, a seven-run fourth that was far from lucky erased an early deficit as No. 23 Texas A&M escaped Texas State on Tuesday night, 9-6.
“We’re never too down on ourselves in the dugout,” outfielder Caden Sorrell said. “We take everything pitch-to-pitch, inning-to-inning. If something doesn’t go our way, we respond. That’s the good thing about this lineup full of relentless guys just trying to get the job done.”
That response was loud. Leading the way was Sorrell, who claimed to be wearing green underwear, while mashing his 10th and 11th home runs of the year in the come-from-behind victory.
His first two-run blast — a 112 mph missile to the right field bullpen — punctuated the boisterous fourth.
Three innings later, he moved into eight on A&M’s all-time list with an opposite-field shot off the left-field scoreboard.
Hitting .389 with a 1.353 OPS, the future first-rounder is staking his claim to program all-time great status.
“I’m never surprised by what Sorrell does,” said fellow junior Gavin Grahovac. “That guy, he’s a special player, and it’s fun being on a team with him. The relationship we’ve built, watching him play, leading from him and all these other guys, it’s phenomenal.”
Grahovac finished 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI, raising his average to .361.
While Sorrell’s sensational night stole headlines, Chris Hacopian’s fourth-inning leadoff shot jump-started an offense that was held hitless by Will Canalichio for the first three innings.
In his four games since returning from injury, Hacopian is 5-for-13 with two home runs and four runs scored.
“You felt the momentum swinging,” A&M head coach Michael Earley said of his All-American second baseman. “Just kind of got us on the board. Got the place juiced up because we hadn’t given them, to that point, anything to be juiced up about. That was huge.”
Juice was required as the plot was far juicer than A&M’s first four midweeks.
While Corpus Christi, Lamar, Incarnate Word and Stephen F. Austin were pushovers, Texas State pushed first and then pushed back, scoring four vs. Cole Hubert on a series of five second-inning singles.
With the Aggies leading 7-4 in the fifth, the Bobcats plated two off Gavin Lyons, who mostly steadied the nerves of the 5,749 in the ballpark.
“[Lyons] threw 58 pitches. We’re asking a lot out of him,” Earley said. “Gavin has the ability to throw a lot. Not everybody does. I think maybe the uniqueness of the arm angle allows him to get up, get down, but that’s just how it is.
“We’re going to play every game to win, and some of those Tuesday games, you’re going to win some by a lot. You’re going to lose some by a lot, but you’re going to have a lot of those tight ones, and those games can easily slip away.”
With Texas State in proximity, Earley was forced to call upon fellow trusted relievers Juan Vargas, Ethan Darden and Clayton Freshcorn to seal the win.
Those three, along with Lyons, will seemingly be asked to do much of the heavy lifting out of the bullpen this spring, which is fine as long as the results remain positive.
“Our guys were great tonight,” Earley said. “They stayed in the game. There was no panic, and they just kept playing baseball.”
In the end, there’s really nothing to be mad about. Midweeks are midweeks, and wins are wins.
Plus, our neighbors in Austin are likely much madder tonight.
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