No. 13 Aggies Use Longball to Defeat No. 18 Oklahoma

Friday, April 16

College Station, TX

Texas A&M

31-9, 7-6

Oklahoma

23-13, 10-3

Oklahoma

Texas A&M

Apr 16, 2004 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

April 16, 2004

No. 13 Texas A&M hit three home runs and survived a late rally by No. 18 Oklahoma to earn an 11-8 win over the league-leading Sooners in front of 7,257 fans at Olsen Field.

Jason Meyer (7-0) pitched a masterful eight innings, striking out eight and allowing one run on seven hits to stake the Aggies to an 11-1 lead heading into the ninth.

Relievers Austin Creps and Kyle Nicholson could not record an out in the ninth before allowing seven runs. Blake Rampy entered the game with a runner on second and fanned the three men he faced to end the inning and the threat to earn his fourth save of the season.

With the win, the Aggies improved to 31-9 overall and to 7-6 in Big 12 play. Oklahoma dropped to 23-13 and 10-3.

Oklahoma touched Meyer for one run on three hits in the top of the first. Russell Raley started the game with a double and scored one hitter later on a RBI single by Andrew McGuire.

After OU starter Mark Roberts retired the side in order in the A&M half of the first, the Aggies used back-to-back homers by Justin Ruggiano and Cory Patton to make the score 3-1. Ruggiano's longball also scored Coby Mavroulis, who started the inning with a single.

With two outs and two on in the bottom of the fourth, Travis Bartek delivered his first home run of the season to stretch the A&M lead to 6-1.

The Aggies used a RBI double by Ruggiano and a RBI single by Patton to push two more runs across in the bottom of the fifth.

Roberts (5-3) allowed eight runs on nine hits in six innings of work.

Texas A&M scored what would prove to be three important insurance runs in the seventh and eighth innings. A fielding error by OU center fielder Jeff Scuderi allowed two runs to race home in the eighth and a bases-loaded walk in the ninth did the damage.

Game two of the series will be Saturday at 7 p.m. All pre-sale tickets have been sold but a limited amount of general admission tickets will be available when the gates open at 5 p.m. Students with all-sports passes will also be admitted on a first-come, first-serve basis.