Game #50: No. 13 Mississippi State 18, No. 10 Texas A&M 11
Records: Texas A&M (37-13, 16-11), Mississippi State (39-14, 16-12)
WP: Tomas Valincius (9-2)
LP: Ethan Darden (4-2)
Box Score
If only they all had the toughness and grit of Boston Kellner.
Six days after suffering an orbital fracture in Oxford, the freshman was in the lineup and starting at shortstop, using a protective mask to shield his face.
Perhaps the Aggie pitching staff will be asking Kellner if they can borrow it to hide theirs.
Indeed, it was that ugly in an 18-11 loss to No. 13 Mississippi State to open a crucial series to conclude the regular season.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before. A lot went wrong,” Texas A&M head coach Michael Earley said. “That amount of runs, I don’t care if they’re getting hits, whatever. You just can’t… You’re never gonna… You’re not going to win a baseball game if you give up that many hits and that many runs in it.”
A disaster class in pitching ineffectiveness came in the top of the third.
Despite being given an early 2-0 lead by solo home runs from Gavin Grahovac and Chris Hacopian, the pitching cratered to canyon-sized proportions.
Earley needed four different arms in the ill-fated third as State scored 13 runs on 12 hits, a walk and an error in a 39-minute half inning. Aside from Jacob Parker’s three-run homer and Kevin Milewski’s two-run blast and a two-out double, the other nine hits were all singles.
It is the most runs A&M has allowed in a single inning since at least 2000.
Ethan Darden retired the first six he faced before letting the first three reach in the third. Gavin Lyons faced six and recorded one out, while Grant Cunningham did the same.
Hunter Bond mercifully ended the frame after giving up a two-out, two-run double, but by then, many of the 5,862 at Blue Bell Park were making Thursday evening dinner plans before 7:15 p.m.
Except State wasn’t done eating, adding Vytas Valincius and Ace Reese solo shots and a pair of unearned runs to continue feasting.
Cole Hubert, Hunter Vincent and Cooper Powell mostly stopped the bleeding as No. 10 Texas A&M somehow skirted a third run-rule defeat thanks to centerfielder Aidan Teel’s worst efforts that directly led to four runs in the late innings.
Those who kept watching through supper probably felt as though they watched the Aggies’ national seed hopes get put on a ventilator, and can you blame them?
“At some point, you have to compete and just will yourself to get people out,” Earley said. “The other part of it, too, is we have a really good offense and favorable conditions, and you never know what’s going to happen, and we continue to not make plays.
“If you’re good, you’re good. If you make plays, you make plays. It doesn’t matter, and you keep playing. I’ve been a part of games in this park with those conditions where you just keep playing, you make plays, and you never know what can happen.”
The path to a top-eight spot was clear entering the weekend. It now requires going 2-0 over the next two days after getting your brains beaten around your home ballpark.
But the Aggies have responded all year, right?
Sure, but an already thin pitching staff is now down Aiden Sims, who will miss his scheduled Friday start with “tightness.” That’s an ominous sign for this weekend and beyond, considering fellow starters Shane Sdao and Weston Moss have been inconsistent to bad for much of the spring.
The hope is that Sdao and Moss can lead that response beginning Friday at 6 p.m. CT.
They’ll need to flush it before home-field advantage in the NCAA Tournament gets flushed, but hope obviously isn’t enough.
“We’ve lost game ones and won a ton of series,” Earley said. “It’s all part of it. We’re seasoned for it. I feel good about my club.”
Unequivocally, the pitching must be better. It can’t be much worse.
A&M’s offense needs to continue what it did against Tomas Valincius, scoring seven runs on nine hits during the Bulldog ace’s five frames.
Then there’s that grit and toughness factor, which can’t be quantified.
We know Kellner plenty, but does the rest of the clubhouse?
“We got guys with broken bones on the field,” Earley said. “The guys care, and caring is one thing. You gotta have that. That’s an expectation, but just gotta play better baseball and respond again.”
