Aggies Triumph 5-2 at South Carolina to Clinch Series

May 14, 2016 | Baseball

Box Score

COLUMBIA, South Carolina – Turner Larkins and Andrew Vinson held the No. 8 South Carolina Gamecocks to three hits as the No. 2 Texas A&M Aggies clinched the series win with a 5-2 victory Saturday evening at Founders Park.

Larkins went 4.2 innings as the starter, allowing two runs on two hits and three walks while striking out four. Vinson (3-2) allowed just two baserunners in 4.1 scoreless innings to pick up the win. He allowed one hit that was erased with a double play and one walk while striking out three. Texas A&M pitchers have held opponents to two runs and eight hits over the last three games.

Ryne Birk led the Aggies at the plate going 3-for-4 with one double, one home run, three runs and two RBI.

With the win, the Texas A&M (39-10, 18-8 SEC) ends the day with a half-game lead over Florida (17-8 SEC) in the overall league standings and a one-game lead over Mississippi State (17-9 SEC) in the Western Division standings.

South Carolina (37-13, 16-9 SEC) broke the scoring seal in the bottom of the third inning. T.J. Hopkins started the frame with a single to leftfield and stole second base. Gene Cone was hit by a pitch and after Marcus Mooney flied to left for the first out of the inning a wild pitch put two runners in scoring position. Alex Destino hit a grounder to first base to plate Hopkins for the 1-0 lead. It snapped a string of 21 consecutive shutout innings for Aggie pitchers.

Texas A&M wrangled the lead from South Carolina in the top of the fourth. Nick Choruby started the inning by bouncing a single up the middle and he moved to second on an errant throw on a pickoff attempt. Choruby came around to score the tying run when second baseman Madison Stokes misplayed a grounder by Boomer White. After Hunter Melton flied to leftfield for the first out of the inning, Birk hit a titanic blast to rightfield for his sixth home run of the season, staking the Aggies to a 3-1 lead.

The Gamecocks shaved a run off the Aggie lead in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Stokes hit his first home run of the season, a solo job to leftfield, to cut the margin to 3-2.

Texas A&M added an insurance run in the sixth with a single by Nick Banks and another in the eight with a sacrifice fly by Ronnie Gideon

South Carolina starter Braden Webb worked 5.2 innings, yielding four runs, three earned, on seven hits and two walks while striking out seven.

The Aggies go for the series sweep on Sunday with a 3:02 pm Central first pitch at Founders Park.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

Head Coach Rob Childress
On the pitchers handling the South Carolina hitters…
"I feel like (Turner) Larkins battled his tail off and got us into the fifth inning. Andrew Vinson is an extreme veteran. He went out in a hostile environment, threw the ball over the plate and made them swing. When they had opportunities to make big plays he made big pitches."

On what he expects to see from South Carolina on Sunday…
"We're going to get their best shot. Everybody in the league talks about 'championship Sunday.' Everybody is playing for something. We're going to get their best shot and they're going to get our best shot."

Senior pitcher Andrew Vinson
On his outing…
"Turner (Larkins) started us off great. He gave us momentum on the mound. Once we got the lead it's easier to pitch. You have some wiggle room. The defense was great today. I just threw strikes and let them put the ball in play. We were making plays all around the infield. They hit a couple balls hard to the outfield, but we had guys there to make the plate."

On Cole Bedford's game behind the plate…
"Michael (Barash) got banged up back there getting hit on the backend of a swing and had to leave the game. I don't think we missed a beat with Cole back there. He did an amazing job back there. It was like I was still throwing to Michael."

Junior second baseman Ryne Birk
On his day at the plate…
"The first AB was a little tough. He has good stuff. The next couple times he wasn't as sharp and he hung a couple pitches. You have to be ready to take advantage of those opportunities when you get them."

On the infield play…
"You need to play really good defense to win, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. Hunter (Melton), (Austin) Homan and Boomer (White) where getting to everything today and making great plays. Our pitchers do such a great job of fielding their position and covering first which makes defense so much easier on the right side of the infield."