No. 4 Aggies Escape Scare From SFA
2/21/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 21, 2012
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -The No. 4 Texas A&M Aggies plated a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth and shut down the Stephen F. Austin bats in the final three innings to take a 4-3 win on Tuesday at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
Justin Choateprovided the best pitching performance of the year for SFA (0-3), taking the loss despite throwing 6.0 innings and fanning five while walking one and allowing four runs, just two of which were earned. Aggie right-hander Jason Freeman earned his first win of the year by tossing a pair of perfect innings of relief before freshman Daniel Mengden picked up the save with a shutdown ninth.
The `Jacks, who had fallen behind 2-0 after Texas A&M wasted no time in spotting itself a lead, did not take long to come back itself by pushing across a pair of runs in the third and then taking the lead on Max Lamantia'sfirst homer of the year to lead off the fourth; however, an SFA error with one out in the sixth inning broke a string of 11 straight hitters retired by Choate and set the table for freshman Cory Lankford who delivered a two-out, two-run single to give the Aggies all the runs they would need.
From there the Aggie bullpen managed to allow just two base runners in the final three innings, not letting a Lumberjack reach second base in closing out the win.
Zach Benson was the lone `Jack with multiple hits, reaching twice on a pair of singles, while Cody Priestprovided a pair of shutout innings with two strikeouts in relief of Choate.
Texas A&M used a sacrifice fly from Brandon Wood and a balk from Choate to push across each of its first two runs in the opening frame, but SFA put each of its first three runners on in the top of the third and cashed in on a two-out single by Bobby Lovelessoff of starter Derrick Hadley to knot the game.
SFA then staked itself to its first lead of the game on the first pitch of the fourth when Lamantia connected on a solo shot, and Choate responded by tossing a pair of shutdown innings in the fourth and fifth frames.
He managed to get the first out of the sixth before Matt Juengel reached on an error on Bryce Cummingsat third and Jacob House followed with a hard double off of Lamantia's glove at first base to give the Aggies life with a pair of runners on and just one out. Choate managed to punch out Wood, but could not get past Lankford, who pulled a two-strike pitch through the hole in the right side of the infield for what proved to be the winning runs.
The `Jacks will look to scratch the win column for the first time on Wednesday at home when it hosts Grambling at 3:00 p.m. Brett Higginbothamis scheduled to get the start for the `Jacks.
-SFA-
