Frustrating twinbill sinks No. 7 A&M to first series loss since March

Game #43: No. 8 Auburn 18, No. 7 Texas A&M 5 (7 innings)
Records: Texas A&M (34-9, 14-7), Auburn (31-13, 13-9)
WP: Andreas Alvarez (8-2)
LP: Shane Sdao (3-4)
Box Score

Game #44: No. 8 Auburn 5, No. 7 Texas A&M 4
Records: Texas A&M (34-10, 14-8), Auburn (32-13, 14-9)
WP: Jake Marciano (4-3)
LP: Aiden Sims (8-1)
Save: Jackson Sanders (3)
Box Score

Life in the SEC is treacherous. After winning five straight series, a slip-up was bound to happen.

Something similar to stepping on a banana peel, getting swept by No. 8 Auburn in a Saturday doubleheader isn’t the end of the world, but it’s certainly upsetting.

Maddening, even.

And unlike the cartoon stereotype, there was nothing funny about No. 7 Texas A&M’s day at Blue Bell Park in an 18-5 run-rule laugher and a frustrating 5-4 defeat.

Those very frustrations boiled over in the ninth inning of the nightcap as Michael Earley was ejected for arguing balls and strikes after Gavin Grahovac struck out looking for the second out.

“We just played awful in the first game,” the Aggie skipper lamented. “We really battled and played solid baseball right there, so yeah, we’ll bounce back. We’ll be fine.”

Surely seeing red, his departure didn’t send him to watch dancers in yellow-on-yellow baseball uniforms.

It likely had him thinking of the response required on Sunday, as salvaging the series finale is now an unfortunate goal for the weekend.

“We can’t win the series, but we’ve got to come out tomorrow with a sense of urgency and salvage this thing and move forward,” Earley said. “First game, they dominated in every aspect of the game. [In the second], we just needed one more pitch, one more hit. We didn’t get it.”

To his point, the Aggies had Sawyer Farr aboard when umpire Steve Mattingly rung up Grahovac on a pitch low of the zone. After Earley got run, that potential tying run reached third with two outs, just for Chris Hacopian to bounce into a game-ending fielder’s choice.

Down 0-2 in the series, any Maroon & White response will likely require better starting pitching than what A&M received in the twinbill.

Belle Chapa, TexAgs

Gavin Grahovac homered twice in the first contest before watching his 18-game hit streak come to an end on Saturday evening.

It was all Auburn, all day as the Tigers went 19-for-38 at the plate in the opener before jumping out to an early 5-0 lead in the second ballgame.

Shane Sdao collapsed in a six-run second inning. Behind him, Grant Cunningham coughed up five across three frames. Even Luke Billings and Cole Hubert caved for three runs apiece.

Even the ever-reliable Aiden Sims couldn’t keep Auburn in check, allowing five runs — the decisive two of which were unearned — in five innings of work. Gavin Lyons offered four scoreless frames to keep A&M in the contest, though his efforts went unrewarded.

Every Tiger that had an at-bat — there were 10 of them —  on Saturday had at least one hit, and all but one scored a run as they had men on base in 14 of their 16 offensive innings.

“There’s a point where the game felt a little out of hand, and it was, but we were still making bad baseball plays,” Earley said. “Not executing a first-and-third the right way. Missing a ground ball. Just things like that. It doesn’t matter what the score is because if you make plays, you make plays.

“Yeah, they played better in the second game, but just not complete, clean baseball, and it doesn’t matter who’s out there.”

Ethan Mito, Texas A&M Athletics

Bigger than baseball: Both Texas A&M and Auburn wore “Mark’s Army” t-shirts during batting practice to support the Mark Massey Legacy Foundation and the “Strike Out DMG” campaign.

After last week’s collision with 6-foot-4, 240-pound Jorian Wilson, Hacopian is playing at less than 100 percent. He DH’d in both contests, forcing Jake Duer to play left field and either Farr or Travis Chestnut to play second.

Worse, third baseman Nico Partida exited the second ballgame with an apparent injury on a second-inning groundball. His status for Sunday is doubtful with what Earley described as a “pulled something” as Grahovac moved across the diamond with Blake Binderup manning first base.

Shorthanded, a typically stout offense was uncharacteristically upsetting, but that’s bound to happen against a pitching staff as talented as Auburn’s.

In the early outclassing, all five A&M’s runs scored via the home run — two from Grahovac and one from Wilson. In the later comeback attempt, all four of the Aggie runs scored with two outs as they struggled to get men aboard with fewer than two outs.

In total, A&M had just 12 total hits.

“First guy [Andreas Alvarez] had good stuff, throwing strikes, keeping us off balance, and the pitchers in the next game did as well,” catcher Bear Harrison said. “I think we’re better than that. When they only score five runs, we know we can score more than five runs. It just wasn’t our day today offensively, and it just sucks.”

There’s no denying that Saturday was painful. So painful that the baseball purists among us might’ve been tempted to cross the street for a different kind of baseball at Kyle Field.

OK, maybe not that painful, but you get the point.

Those same purists would be right to remind that the Aggies are still on track to host a regional and possibly even be a top-eight national seed. At 14-8, A&M is still near the top of the SEC standings, albeit now trailing Georgia by 2.5 games.

And any Mario Kart-er could tell you that one banana peel snafu doesn’t completely ruin your race.

It’s the response to those slip-ups that matters most.