Game #42: No. 7 Texas A&M 9, Tarleton 7
Records: Texas A&M (34-8, 14-6), Tarleton (28-16, 8-4)
WP: Ethan Darden (4-0)
LP: Jack Lovin (0-1)
Save: Clayton Freshcorn (10)
Box Score
Midweeks can be maddening.
Already this season, though mostly in victories, we have seen the mayhem mid-majors can create.
Comebacks were required to beat Corpus Christi, Texas State and Houston. There was a loss in San Marcos.
Fortunately, Tuesday night vs. Tarleton was more of the former…twice…so don’t be too upset.
No. 7 Texas A&M erased a pair of two-run deficits to beat Tarleton 9-7 and begin a five-game homestand at Blue Bell Park in the win column.
Once again, the offense rolled. Caden Sorrell, fresh off a 1-for-14 trip to Gainesville, hit two home runs to tie Mike Scanlin for fifth on the all-time list with 43. Nico Partida had a pair of clutch hits to score three of A&M’s final four runs, driving his RBI total to 41.
However, the pitching and defense were not up to par with another SEC showdown looming.
“We didn’t play very clean baseball,” A&M head coach Michael Earley said. “We played tough, had good at-bats when we needed to, got it done when we needed to. We kind of put ourselves in that situation, but it’s a very resilient group, obviously. They have been all year, so I wasn’t surprised at all.”
They’re not lacking in resilience. They are lacking another word that starts with R: relief.
It’s no secret that the weakness of A&M’s otherwise stout club is bullpen depth.
Sure, Clayton Freshcorn, Gavin Lyons and Ethan Darden can be trusted, but can three relievers combined with inconsistent starting pitching (Aiden Sims omitted) be enough to win in the postseason? Possibly.
Perhaps slightly concerning was that A&M required two-thirds of that relief trio to beat Tarleton.
In A&M’s penultimate Tuesday game of the year, a five-run fourth inning saw Juan Vargas serve up back-to-back home runs before a frustratingly ineffective beginning to Grant Cunningham’s night featured three walks.
Vargas was charged with two runs on six hits. Cunningham surrendered four on four in 2.2 innings, while Darden allowed one unearned marker in 2.1.
“I thought they did a fine job,” Earley said. “I thought they showed a ton of resilience and kept us in the game and let our offense work.”
There's that word again.
After Darden steadied the ship, Freshcorn sealed the deal and earned his 10th save with a scoreless ninth.
“Nameless, faceless opponent. Just go out there and compete,” Darden said. “Our goal is to put zeros on the board and have shutdown innings, so nothing really changes, whether we’re up by 10 or down by 10. You still got to go out there and put a zero up for your team to have a chance to come back or maintain the lead.
“Every game is the same. Every game counts for the same. We need to win midweeks. Good teams win midweeks. Good teams win two out of three. That’s just what our standard is.”
A&M has done that. You might recall it’s five straight SEC series victories. It’s also now nine of 10 midweek wins.
Still, that five-run fourth meant A&M had to battle back from a 5-3 deficit. The Aggies did so with solo home runs from Sorrell and Bear Harrison in the fifth.
A 446-foot shot that threatened Wellborn Road, Sorrell’s second of the night pushed his season total to 20 as he became the seventh different Aggie to reach that number.
“There’s been a lot of great baseball players here, so being on there is really cool,” he said. “I’m not trying to go up there and hit homers. Sometimes I just, you know, run into one. As soon as I’m thinking about that, it might get me off my approach a little bit.”
While Sorrell had the biggest swings, Partida was by far the clutchest.
After the veteran centerfielder struck out with the bases loaded in the sixth, the freshman third baseman’s two-out double plated a pair to forge a 7-7 tie.
A wild pitch scored Sawyer Farr for the go-ahead run two innings later, but Partida’s one-out single drove in another and added an important insurance run.
“You gotta have some offense on Tuesdays, and we had that tonight,” Earley said. “Our pitchers have done a good job of keeping us in the game. No matter in the course of the game when they score, the moment when you need to stop them, they stop them.”
And the Aggies won. Full stop.
As Ebby Calvin LaLoosh said: Winning is better than losing.
There’s no reason to have a nuclear meltdown about this midweek, so don’t be mad.
Earley certainly isn’t.
