Tuesday, March 8
College Station
6:30 PM
Texas A&M
12-1
7
vs
6
Northwestern State
6-6
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Northwestern State
0
1
1
0
0
0
3
1
0
6
12
0
Texas A&M
2
0
0
2
3
0
0
0
X
7
13
0
Photo by: Texas A&M Athletics
Aggies Vanquish Demons, 7-6
Mar 08, 2016 | Baseball
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Junior Nick Banks provided the big two-run homer that helped the Texas A&M Aggies (12-1) down the Northwestern State Demons (6-6) in a tight 7-6 victory on Blue Bell Park at Olsen Field Tuesday night. Aggie pitching posted their seventh straight double-digit strikeout game finishing with 14 Ks.
The game got off to a good start for the Aggies when they posted two-spot in the first inning. Hits by Nick Choruby and Boomer White set up Hunter Melton to bring them in with a two-run single, adding to his team lead in RBI.
The Demons would tie the score up plating one run in the second and third.
Another two-run inning came for A&M in the fourth, regaining the lead off reliever Nathan Aultman (1-1). Janca squeezed in Ryne Birk and J.B. Moss drove in the second run with a single bringing the score to 4-2.
Brigham Hill (2-0) worked out of jams all night to earn the win in his second start of the season. The Demons put a runner on second in eight out of nine innings but each of Aggie pitching was able to minimize the damage the 14 strikeouts.
The Maroon and White offense took a commanding lead with a big three-run fifth. After Melton doubled home White on a deep drive to center, Banks stepped up looking to pad the lead. On a 3-2 count, he sent a low, lining homer into the visiting bullpen, pushing the score to 7-2.
Northwestern State didn't call it quits putting up a big seventh inning. Corbin Martin, in his second inning of work, gave up a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases for the five-hole hitter Cade Jones. After fanning Jones, Martin allowed two more singles that plated three Demon baserunners, making the score 7-5. Andrew Vinson was called into to get the Aggies out of the jam.
The visitors kept fighting with a leadoff single in the eighth by Matt Valdez who brought the lead one. He was advanced by a sacrifice and a couple of wild pitches by closer Ryan Hendrix.
The Demons made the ninth inning interesting working a one-out walk from Hendrix. A strikeout and a walk put the winning run on with two outs. One strike away, catcher Michael Barash got a fortunate bounce off the backstop on wild pitch-strike three that allowed him to throw out Valdez for the final out of the game. Hendrix earned his second save for his 1.2 innings of work, four of his five outs were strikeouts.
White had another nice night going 3-for-4 bringing his season average to .453. Birk kept his hot streak alive with a couple hits giving him seven hits in his last nine at-bats. Gideon added to his team lead in hit-by-pitches with his fourth, no other Aggie has two.
The Aggies will wrap up the two-game set with a 3:00 start time on Wednesday moved up from 6:35 due to possible bad weather. Stephen Kolek will make the start for A&M.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On the playing a tight game…
"Give Northwestern State a lot of credit. They're extremely well coached and they played extremely hard. They never went away and had competitive at-bats 1-thru-9. We were very fortunate to come out with a win."
On Boomer White and Hunter Melton…
"They continue to play well for us. They're tough outs. They had opportunities and made the most of them. It's easy to build an offense around guys like that. I'm very proud of the way they played."
The game got off to a good start for the Aggies when they posted two-spot in the first inning. Hits by Nick Choruby and Boomer White set up Hunter Melton to bring them in with a two-run single, adding to his team lead in RBI.
The Demons would tie the score up plating one run in the second and third.
Another two-run inning came for A&M in the fourth, regaining the lead off reliever Nathan Aultman (1-1). Janca squeezed in Ryne Birk and J.B. Moss drove in the second run with a single bringing the score to 4-2.
Brigham Hill (2-0) worked out of jams all night to earn the win in his second start of the season. The Demons put a runner on second in eight out of nine innings but each of Aggie pitching was able to minimize the damage the 14 strikeouts.
The Maroon and White offense took a commanding lead with a big three-run fifth. After Melton doubled home White on a deep drive to center, Banks stepped up looking to pad the lead. On a 3-2 count, he sent a low, lining homer into the visiting bullpen, pushing the score to 7-2.
Northwestern State didn't call it quits putting up a big seventh inning. Corbin Martin, in his second inning of work, gave up a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases for the five-hole hitter Cade Jones. After fanning Jones, Martin allowed two more singles that plated three Demon baserunners, making the score 7-5. Andrew Vinson was called into to get the Aggies out of the jam.
The visitors kept fighting with a leadoff single in the eighth by Matt Valdez who brought the lead one. He was advanced by a sacrifice and a couple of wild pitches by closer Ryan Hendrix.
The Demons made the ninth inning interesting working a one-out walk from Hendrix. A strikeout and a walk put the winning run on with two outs. One strike away, catcher Michael Barash got a fortunate bounce off the backstop on wild pitch-strike three that allowed him to throw out Valdez for the final out of the game. Hendrix earned his second save for his 1.2 innings of work, four of his five outs were strikeouts.
White had another nice night going 3-for-4 bringing his season average to .453. Birk kept his hot streak alive with a couple hits giving him seven hits in his last nine at-bats. Gideon added to his team lead in hit-by-pitches with his fourth, no other Aggie has two.
The Aggies will wrap up the two-game set with a 3:00 start time on Wednesday moved up from 6:35 due to possible bad weather. Stephen Kolek will make the start for A&M.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On the playing a tight game…
"Give Northwestern State a lot of credit. They're extremely well coached and they played extremely hard. They never went away and had competitive at-bats 1-thru-9. We were very fortunate to come out with a win."
On Boomer White and Hunter Melton…
"They continue to play well for us. They're tough outs. They had opportunities and made the most of them. It's easy to build an offense around guys like that. I'm very proud of the way they played."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Hill, Brigham (2-0)
L: Aultman, Nathan (1-1)
S: Hendrix, Ryan (2)
Batting:
2B: Underwood, Bret 2 ; Garner, Daniel 1
RBI: Garner, Daniel 1 ; Goodwin, Spencer 1 ; Alford, Matthew 3
SH: Heath, Nick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Underwood, Bret 2 ; Garner, Daniel 1 ; Fry, David 1 ; Jones, Cade 1 ; Valdez, Matt 1
SB: Heath, Nick 1 ; Underwood, Bret 2
HBP: Heath, Nick 1
Batting:
2B: Choruby, Nick 1 ; Melton, Hunter 1
HR: Banks, Nick 1
RBI: Moss, J.B. 1 ; Melton, Hunter 3 ; Banks, Nick 2 ; Janca, George 1
SH: Janca, George 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Choruby, Nick 1 ; White, Boomer 2 ; Melton, Hunter 1 ; Banks, Nick 1 ; Birk, Ryne 1 ; Bedford, Cole 1
HBP: Melton, Hunter 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
2
H
3
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
3
Players Mentioned
OF
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballINF
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