Aggies Fall to Baylor, 6-3

Sunday, March 5

Houston, Texas

6:30 PM

Texas A&M

9-3

Baylor

11-1

Texas A&M

Baylor

Photo by: Russell James/Texas A&M Athletics

Mar 05, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score - Baylor 6, A&M 3 Photo Gallery

HOUSTON, Texas – The Baylor Bears defeated the No. 20 Texas A&M Aggies 6-3 to take the finale of the Shriners Hospital for Children College Classic at Minute Maid Park.

Texas A&M took a 3-1 lead into the ninth inning but Baylor managed to scratch five runs across including the game-winning grand slam off the bat of Tucker Cascadden with two outs. Corbin Martin (0-2) was saddled with his second loss of the season..

Mitchell Kilkenny got the call on the mound for Texas A&M. The sophomore set career highs in innings and strikeouts on his way to a no-decision. He allowed just four Baylor hits striking out seven in as many innings.

Baylor (11-1) threw left-hander Cody Bradford who came into the game with a perfect record and 2.08 ERA. The Aggie offense tagged him for three runs over his six innings with Bradford fanning seven. The Bears fourth pitcher, Troy Montemayor (1-0) got the win after working a scoreless ninth.

Texas A&M (9-3) tallied the game's first runs in the third. Logan Foster began the frame with a triple to right field gap. Braden Shewmake plated Foster with his second double of the early-going. After Joel Davis' flyout brought Shewmake to third, Walker Pennington drove Davis in via an RBI groundout. Foster would come around to score again in the fifth inning for his sixth run of the tournament. After a double with one out, Foster advanced to third on a Shewmake ground out. Davis' subsequent grounder to second took an unexpected hop over the second baseman bringing the Aggie lead to 3-0.

Kilkenny kept the Baylor bats quiet for the first five frames before Baylor scratched their first run of the game in the sixth. The Bears threatened the big inning but a double play and fly-out kept the output at one. After Kilkenny's perfect seventh, Landon Miner was called on in relief. Miner took care of business in the eighth and gave up an infield hit to start the ninth before he was pulled in favor of Martin.

The two programs met for the first time since A&M's 3-2 victory over the Bears at the 2015 College Classic. Texas A&M maintains a 181-135-4 edge in the all-time series.

Shewmake and Foster were named to the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic All-Tournament Team along with Friday's starter Brigham Hill. Foster hit 7-for-17 over the three days with six runs scored while Shewmake had three extra-base hits and three RBI.

Next up, Texas A&M meets the UTRGV Vaqueros for a two-game set in College Station. First pitch on Tuesday is set for 6:32 p.m. while the game time on Wednesday is slated for 3:02 p.m.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

HEAD COACH ROB CHILDRESS
"How we handle failure is ultimately going to determine our success. We had a hard trip out last night and we thought it was as bad as it can be but I guess it wasn't. Certainly disappointed. Our guys played so great for eight and a half innings to have it taken away from us. Make no mistake Baylor came and took that from us. Disappointed for our guys and disappointed for Corbin (Martin). We made some mistakes there in the ninth and they certainly made us pay for it in a big way."

FRESHMAN 2B BRADEN SHEWMAKE
"He told us that it's going to be a long season. We are going to face adversity like this and it's going to be all about how we respond. Two games in March isn't going to be what determines the season for us. We are a lot better baseball team now than when we started and we know that. I think we will be fine. We have awesome pitching staff and tonight it just happened to fall the wrong way"

SOPHOMORE RHP MITCHELL KILKENNY
"I had to do what I could and get as far as I could in this ballgame as I could. Obviously there's always room for improvement and my defense was great behind me tonight. Played a good game just didn't work out in the end."