Diamond Thoughts: Bratsen delivers in 10th for walk-off win

GAME #20: Texas A&M 2, Georgia 1 (10 innings)
RECORDS: Texas A&M 13-7, 2-0 SEC; Georgia 8-11, 0-2 SEC
WP: Jason Jester (2-0)
LP: Jared Walsh (1-2)
S: None
BOX SCORE: LINK

COLLEGE STATION - Krey Bratsen was born and raised under the shadows of Olsen Field. He grew up and Bryan and his father, Bear, played for the Aggies in the 1970s under Tom Chandler.

Bratsen, a junior at A&M, has witnessed his fair share of Olsen Magic moments both as a fan and during his three years on campus. But on Saturday, the Aggie center fielder stepped to the forefront and provided yet another glorious late-game moment in this ball park's storied history.

With one out and Jace Statum at second base in the bottom of the tenth inning, Bratsen lifted a 1-2 fastball into right center field and Statum came around to score to give Texas A&M a 2-1 walk-off win over Georgia. And in the process, the Aggies claim the series win over the Bulldogs.

"That is big-time, not only for me but for out team," Bratsen said. "I was glad that I was able to be a part of that and execute when I needed to."

"I think it's special," added A&M head coach Rob Childress. "Krey got off to such a great start and has hit into a lot of tough luck the last six games, and you can start to see the frustration creep back into him a little bit. I'm just happy for him and for us that he was the guy that [won the game]."

Bratsen had been struggling of late in terms of his numbers but had been hitting the ball hard right at defenders. But he kept his head up and came through when it mattered most.

"It's frustrating when you're doing everything right and you're hitting the ball hard right at people," Bratsen said. "If you keep doing that, it's going to fall [soon]. Sure enough, it did."

The weather conditions were perfect for a high-scoring game but the pitching on both sides were not about to let that happen. UGA left-hander Patrick Boling struck out a career-high 10 batters through 6.2 innings, and A&M's Daniel Mengden matched him pitch-for-pitch. The Aggie sophomore worked eight-plus frames with no walks and eight strikeouts. Each starter allowed just one run on the day.

The two bullpens combined for just two hits and two walks in a total of 4.2 innings of work.

The Aggies struck first for the second time in as many days, scoring a run in the third inning to jump on top, 1-0. Statum led off the inning with a walk, stole second and was driven home on a two-out single to left field by Blake Allemand.

UGA answered with a run in the top of the fifth, thanks to a win-blown single beyond the reach of Mikey Reynolds in shallow left center field and a sharp RBI double down the right field line by Jess Posey (the brother of Buster Posey ... one of the best players in Major League Baseball).

But that is all the run scoring either team could muster up until the game-winner by Bratsen in the tenth, as the Aggies stranded one runner in each of the first five innings and two runners in the seventh ... both in scoring position.

The left-handed pitching totally shut down the A&M bats for most of the day and utilized the strikeout in key moments to do so. Bulldogs pitching struck out 11 Aggies on the day, but the maroon and white delivered in a big way when it mattered most.

Statum was key to A&M's offensive success for the second straight day, going 1-for-1 with three walks and two stolen bases. He scored both of A&M's runs.

In the tenth inning, Statum led off by drawing a base on balls and advanced into scoring position by Mikey Reynolds. That set up Bratsen to come through with the big hit to clinch the victory.

"I'm just trying to take it pitch-by-pitch and not worry about anything else," Statum said. "I'm a guy that likes to work deep in the count and work pitches and make the pitcher work."

"He knows his role, "Childress said of Statum. "What he's trying to do is get on base and turn that lineup over. He's just a key cog in the lineup. He's commanding the strike zone and he's willing to take his walks from the pitcher when he needs to. I'm really proud of him."

Mengden, who is now fully displaying the Rollie Fingers curls with the mustache, continues to roll on the mound and is quickly becoming one of the top two-way players in college baseball. But in each of his last two starts on the mound, Childress has elected to not use him in the batting order and allow him focus solely on pitching. The move paid off on Saturday.

"It honestly doesn't really matter [whether I'm in the lineup and pitching or not hitting]," Mengden said. "It's a little easier just focusing on pitching because all I have to do is throwing strikes."

In a 1-1 tie heading into the ninth inning, Childress elected to go back to Jason Jester for the second straight day. And Jester delivered a masterful six-out performance to keep the Dawgs at bay and buy time for the Aggies to come through in the tenth inning.

Texas A&M will go for the sweep on Sunday in the series finale at 12 p.m. The game will be televised regionally on Fox Sports Southwest. Right-hander Jason Freeman will make his first start of the season. He's 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in seven relief appearances this season.

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Post-game thoughts

* Daniel Mengden with another outstanding performance on the mound. The kid has been so consistently solid - and at times quite dominant - throughout this season, and today with a lot closer to dominant than not. Mengden retired the first 11 batter that he faced and found a way to pitch out of a jam in the fourth and fifth. The only run that he allowed came in the fifth and the guy that scored - Brett DeLoach - should have never reached base. Reynolds misplayed a ball that carried much further into the outfield than he expected and it totally ate him up. And he was driven home by a kid named Posey (anyone with that name has got to be able to hit, right?) on a line shot that was about an inch from falling into the glove of a diving Cole Lankford at first base. But instead it goes all the way to the wall and DeLoach - a catcher - was able to unhook the trailer and score from first. So I'm calling fluke on that run even scoring.

Here's the key for Mengden ... strike after strike after strike. He's a strike pumper like Michael Wacha used to be, and on a windy day, the best thing that a pitcher can do to limit damage is to not allow free base runners. That plus eight strikeouts equals a very good day on the mound.


* A win is a win so there isn't a whole lot to be upset about ... but I'm still going to nictpick the offense for a minute if you'll allow me to do that (heck, nobody has stayed more positive about the offense than me so I guess it's cool if I go the other way for just a minute). When you play the type of offensive game that A&M plays, you have to take advantage of your opportunities when they present themselves. And the home team had a great chance to score early and put some heat on Boling from the get-go, but failed to cash in.

The Ags had something working in the first with a leadoff hit from Reynolds and a stolen base with no outs. But back-to-back strikeouts can't happen in those situations. Mitchell Nau put a charge into one for a deep fly that ended the inning but Bratsen and Allemand did exactly what you can't do with a runner in scoring position and that is strike out. Even a ground ball to the left side moves him to third and then a fly ball (with less than two outs) would have scored the run. A strikeout gets you nothing in that situation and puts you no closer to getting that run home.

A&M left eight men on base in a 2-1 game, including four in scoring position ... and that doesn't count Statum getting thrown out between third base and home. So really that's five runners left in scoring position in the game. That's way too many. But A&M won so we can tackle that another day. But on Friday night, the Ags took advantage of those moments so I'm seeing good and bad in this department (which is better than bad and bad ... which has been the case at times over the past couple of seasons).


* Statum's impact on the A&M offense right now cannot be overstated. He's had a phenomenal run of late and is doing a bunch of little things that go way beyond the box score. After a Friday night 0-for-0 performance that included two sacrifice bunts - one of them a run-scoring squeeze play - and a run scored, Statum went back to work on Saturday and did a tremendous job of turning over the lineup and doing exactly what a speedy nine-hole hitter is supposed to do.

On Saturday, the junior outfielder went 1-for-1 with three walks, two stolen bases and two runs scored. If you do the math, he's 1-for-1 on the series with four walks, two sacrifice bunts (including one squeeze), two stolen bases, one RBI and three runs scored. I don't know that I've ever seen anyone have a 1-for-1 statline after seven plate appearances over two games. Pretty amazing and you could not ask for more out of Statum in the nine-hole. A perfect solution to A&M's small ball efforts and turning the lineup over with speed and the ability to get on base at the bottom of the lineup.

Now, you know that you're going to have to take the good with the bad on the base paths with Jace and he'll run you out of innings at times. That happened in the fifth inning of this one, as Statum got caught stealing home on a play where he was supposed to wait until after the throw from the catcher on a double steal. Allemand fell down purposely in an attempt to force a throw to either first or second, but Statum broke for home too soon and got himself in a rundown. It was an easy 2-5 putout to end the inning.

But the customary base running blunders aside, it's been a great year for Statum and he's done a great job of fighting for playing time and making the most of his chances to get in the lineup.


* Jason Jester ... wow! What more can I say about him that I haven't already trumpeted over the last few weeks? Jester Time is an amazing thing to witness. He's very John Stilson-like in his approach, attitude and disposition on the mound. It's fun to see. Jester improved to 2-0 on the mound with an outstanding two-inning performance to keep the Dawgs in check prior to Bratsen's tenth-inning walk-off hit.


* It was great to see the 1993 team signing autographs before the game and on the field immediately prior to first pitch. The entire group - which technically was stated to had consisted of 27 attendees but I counted 26 ... hearing that Jeff Granger, who didn't make it in, is coming tomorrow - sawed Varsity's horns off with the current team in front of the A&M dugout. Guys like Trey Moore, Kelly Wunsch, Brian Thomas, Lee Fedora and legendary former head coach Mark Johnson were among the members of that team celebrating the 20-year anniversary of their run to the Southwest Conference title and the College World Series.


* Scary moment as I was walking down the steps and heading outside to my truck after the game. I looked out the window onto the concourse as I'm walking down the stairway and I noticed a huge piece of hard material falling from the top of Blue Bell Park. As it turns out, it was a huge plastic sheet that is part of the Blue Bell Park lighted logo. It crashed onto the concourse near a crowd of fans leaving the ball park and broke in hundreds of pieces. Thankfully nobody was injured and nobody was directly underneath the sign when it fell. Here is a photo that I took what the sign looks like now: LINK


* Great time at the Chat Boil before and after the game. The gang at Louisiana Wild killed it on the crawfish ... great job! And a big thanks to Jack Hilliard Distributing for bringing all of the drinks and the big 20 X 20 tent. It's always so a good time when we get an opportunity to bring the online community to real life and actually get to know each other face-to-face a little more. We're doing more and more of that and will continue to do so ... but this was a get together orchestrated by the users themselves ... not by us. And that's what made it even more special. Thanks to Fuzzbutt - Caleb Wells - for spearheading this outing and for putting together the best subscriber-led event I've ever attended since joining TexAgs full-time in 2008. It was top-flight in every way. Can't wait for Chat Boil 3.0!