Grahovac drives in seven as A&M completes sweep of Mizzou

Game #27: No. 25 Texas A&M 14, Missouri 3 (7 innings)
Records: Texas A&M (22-5, 5-4), Missouri (17-12, 1-8)
WP: Aiden Sims (5-0)
LP: Luke Sullivan (0-3)
Box Score

No need for the antacids.

No late-inning frustrations.

Just Sunday obliterations for No. 25 Texas A&M in a sweep-completing run-rule of Missouri at Taylor Stadium in Columbia. In the 14-3 annihilation, the Aggies launched five home runs in a second conference run-rule in as many weeks.

Further, it’s A&M’s first road series sweep in SEC play since a 2019 trip to Kentucky.

As he did on Saturday, Gavin Grahovac led the way with his second consecutive two-home run performance. Launching a three-run blast in the second and a grand slam an inning later, the All-American posted an impressive seven RBI to run his weekend total to 12.

“When there’s two factors going into a baseball game, there’s a lot to think about,” the wounded Grahovac told the SEC Network+ broadcast postgame. “I tried to think about the pain a little bit more and less about the swing. It kind of helped.

“I think my approach was just get the ball to the outfield. … He gave me a pitch to hit, and I delivered for the team.”

Grahovac's pair of round-trippers accounted for 40 percent of A&M’s home runs on Sunday. Running the series count to 11, Blake Binderup hit a two-run homer in the third, and Caden Sorrell followed Grahovac’s granny with a solo shot.

In the top of the seventh, Jake Duer’s back-side two-run home run pushed A&M’s lead back to 11, where it stayed.

After two and a half, the Aggies were up 11-0. However, earlier in the weekend, Mizzou had created a habit of cutting into those large deficits.

On Friday, A&M watched a 10-1 lead whittle down to one in an 11-9 win.

While the Tigers scored three unanswered, they never got closer than eight runs as Aiden Sims provided the length that Michael Earley & Co. required in the finale.

Improving to 5-0, the right-hander scattered nine hits across 5.1 innings while allowing just three runs. Sims struck out five and walked only one.

Behind him, Juan Vargas escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth before Ethan Darden worked a 1-2-3 seventh — the game’s only clean half inning.

In clinching a clean sweep of Mizzou, A&M is now 5-4 in conference. Overall, the Aggies have won five straight.

For once, the ups and downs of an SEC series were mostly mild, like a rollercoaster for a child.

Except it’s fair to expect the twists and turns next weekend (and beyond) to be a little more wild.

It was just nice to get a break from the TUMS for a while.