Janca Delivers Game Winner in 15-Inning Thriller

Friday, June 9

College Station

2:00 PM

Texas A&M

40-21

Davidson

35-25

Davidson

Texas A&M

Photo by: Thomas Campbell/Texas A&M Athletics

Jun 09, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score Box: A&M 7, DAV 6 Photos

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – George Janca propelled the Aggies to a 7-6 victory over the Davidson Wildcats in NCAA Division I Championship Super Regional play when he punched a walk-off single through the right side of the infield in the 15^th inning.

The game one victory gives Texas A&M (40-21) the upper hand in the best-of-three series heading into Saturday evening's 5:04 pm contest.

The Aggies' 15^th inning started with Braden Shewmake working a six-pitch walk. After Hunter Coleman failed two attempts to get a sacrifice bunt down, he fouled off three more pitches before roping a single to rightfield. Blake Kopetsky put a sacrifice bunt down and when relief pitcher Westin Whitmire tried to retire Shewmake at third, the throw was late to fill the bags with Ags. Baine Schoenvogel and Walker Pennington had chances to end the game, but both popped up bring Janca to the plate for his late-game heroics. He slashed an 0-1 pitch under the glove of diving second baseman, Alec Acosta, to the end game.

Texas A&M drew first blood in the bottom of the first inning. Nick Choruby started the frame by rattling a double in the corner down the rightfield line. He moved to third on a deep fly out by Cole Bedford and scored on Shewmake's grounder to second base.

The Aggies tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the second. Joel Davis and Walker Pennington started the stanza with singles and Janca pushed both runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. After Austin Homan swung and missed at strike three for the second out of the inning Choruby clubbed a 3-2 offering to the warning track in centerfield for a two-run double, inflating the A&M cushion to 3-0.

Texas A&M started the third with back-to-back singles by Shewmake and Coleman. After a pair of strikeouts, Pennington gapped a single to left-center, plating Shewmake for the 4-0 advantage.

Hill worked the first 6.0 innings for the Aggies, allowing three runs, one earned on four hits and one walk while striking out six. Mitchell Kilkenny entered the game to start the 10^thinning and finished with 5.2 scoreless frames, scattering six hits and one walk while striking out nine. Doxakis (3-3) retired the only batter he faced with a strikeout to end the top of the 15^th to scavenger the win.

The cavalcade of runs continued in the fifth with a two-run dinger by Coleman, his fifth home run of the year, to balloon the margin to 6-0.

Davidson (35-25) began to mount their comeback in the top of the sixth. The rally was aided by a throwing error by Aggie starting pitcher Brigham Hill on a bouncer back to mound by Brett Centracchio. Max Bazin pushed Centracchio to second with a sacrifice bunt and back-to-back RBI doubles by Cam Johnson and Will Robertson gave the Wildcats their first runs of the game. Robertson moved to third on a single by Alec Acosta and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brian Fortier.

The Wildcats kept charging in the seventh. Jake Sidwell punched a single to leftfield to start the inning. Reliever Kaylor Chafin appeared to induce a double play by Centracchio, but after touching second base, shortstop Austin Homan's throw to first sailed high putting a runner on second. An infield single by Bazin put runners on the corners. Johnson hit a wall-banger to rightfield for a double, plating Centracchio. A sacrifice fly by Robertson, trimmed the Aggies' lead to one run.

Pennington led the Aggie hit parade going 4-for-7 with one walk, one run and one RBI. Shewmake batted 3-for-7 with one walk, three runs and one RBI. Choruby hit 3-for-6 with one walk, one sacrifice bunt, two doubles, one run and two RBI. Coleman batted 3-for-8 with one home run and two RBI.

Durin O'Linger was a hoss on the mound for Davidson. He racked up 138 pitches, allowing six runs on 14 hits while striking out six in 7.2 innings. Whitmire (3-4) was saddled with the loss, allowing one run on three hits and three walks while striking out three in 4.0 innings.

Johnson paced the Wildcats at the plate. He hit 4-for-8 with two doubles, one run and three RBI. Bazin batted 4-for-5 with one run. Acosta, Eric Jones and Sidwell notched two hits apiece.

Davidson pushed the equalizer across in the ninth. Centracchio was issued a base on balls and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Bazin. Johnson sent a 2-2 offering back up the middle, knotting the game at 6-6.

NOTES

Texas A&M (40-21)
Team Notes
- The 15-inning game was the longest Super Regional Game 1 in tournament history
- The Aggies won the first game of a Super Regional for only the third time since the format began in 1999 (3-5). The Aggies advanced to the College World Series in each of the previous occasions they have won Game 1 (1999 vs. Clemson, 2011 vs. Florida State). The Aggies are 7-12 all-time in Super Regional games.
- Texas A&M won their first extra-inning game since February 21 with the walk-off breaking a string of three straight extra-inning defeats. Davidson fell to 4-3 in games decided in extras this season.
- Texas A&M set a season-high in hits with 18 on the day.
- Aggie pitching retired the leadoff man in 14 straight innings dating back to Regional play before Davidson reached on an error to begin the sixth.
- Leadoff hitters came around to score in four of the first five innings for the Aggies.

Individual Notes
- Starter Brigham Hill didn't allow a hit until a one-out double in the sixth. The four base hits he allowed came in the Wildcats' three-run sixth.
- Freshman Braden Shewmake added to his team lead in RBI with his go-ahead groundout in the first.
- Nick Choruby had two doubles in the first two frames giving him four in the NCAA Championship. He's hitting 9-for-18 through four games with five extra base hits.
- A&M's Mitchell Kilkenny worked the longest relief outing of his career setting career highs in strikeouts (9) and pitches (102) over 5.2 innings.

Davidson (35-25)
Team Notes
- The 15-inning game was the longest Super Regional Game 1. It marked the longest game for Davidson since a 15-inning affair with Morehead State in 1994.
- The 5:12 game was over an hour longer than their next longest game of 2017.
- Davidson's six-game winning streak was snapped with the loss giving them their first ever loss in NCAA Tournament play.

Individual Notes
- Starter Durin O'Linger allowed season-highs in hits (14) and earned runs (6) in his 7.2 innings of work. The senior fanned six with no walks in his no decision.
- Right fielder Will Robertson reached base for the 55^th consecutive game with an RBI double in the sixth.
- Leadoff hitter Cam Johnson set a season high with four hits across his eight at bats. He doubled twice and drove in three.

TEXAS A&M POST GAME QUOTES

GAME ONE – JUNE 9, 2017

ROB CHILDRESS, HEAD COACH

Opening Statement…
"Wow. What an incredibly hard fought win. It was a heavyweight fight. It was two really good teams going at each other. We were very good in every facet for the first five innings and O'Linger is just as good as advertised. He is a very competitive kid and kept them in the game. He wasn't going to let the ball be taken from him and they made their way back. We provided some opportunities for them and they capitalized. Both bullpens were marvelous. Mitchell Kilkenny gave us a chance and their guy gave them a chance. George Janca ended up being the hero in the 15^th. There were a lot of heroes for us all day long from a defensive standpoint, on the mound and offensively. We are very fortunate to win the game today."

On the crowd…
"It was fabulous. You think about 2 o'clock on a Friday, playing in a Super Regional for a fight to go to Omaha and to have seven thousand people here, I couldn't be more proud of the 12^thMan."

MITCHELL KILKENNY, SOPHOMORE RHP

On if he was mentally prepared to throw 102 pitches …
"Absolutely not. Usually I just come off, waiting for my chance to do my job and let the team take care of the rest and that's exactly what happened."

On his bullpen work before coming in…
"That may have been my worst bullpen I've ever thrown. Coming into the game, I was a little bit nervous but it ended up working out. I was just having a hard time locating but once I got on the mound I zoned in, throwing everything that [Coach Childress] asked."

HUNTER COLEMAN, FRESHMAN 1B

On how many times he's been asked to bunt and battling back from 0-2 count …
"This year, I think six so far. Before that, I can't remember. I knew once I got down in the count, I wasn't going to let my team down. My job was to move the guy and I was going to do whatever it took."

On Mitchell's performance…
"He was dominating their guys. He was throwing a fastball and they weren't hitting it. Then, once they thought a fastball was coming, he would break them off with a breaking ball. He gave us a chance when we weren't scoring runs late in the game."

GEORGE JANCA, SOPHOMORE 3B

On his game-winning at bat …
"It was all about moving the line along. I knew a ball in play was going to move the runner and we had been kind of struggling in the later part of the game, driving people in. We were always setting them up and we were always right there, on base, moving them over. I just happened to be up in the situation and the ball got through. It was good for us because we had great at bats all day long, we just couldn't quite break through with runners in scoring position but finally we did there in the 15^th. It was only set up by Mitchell. He came in and did an incredible job and it was probably his longest outing in his two years here. It was a heck of a job by him."

On feeling like they had the game under control with a 6-0 lead…
"I think that's where we kind of get ourselves in trouble. We had a couple innings there where our at bats fell of the table and they weren't as good as they needed to be when you have a team like that, that climbs back in the game to tie it up. I think that's our goal going into tomorrow, to play 9 innings of ball and have a great intent from pitch number one to the end of the game."

DAVIDSON POST GAME QUOTES

GAME ONE – JUNE 9, 2017

DICK COOKE, HEAD COACH

Opening Statement…
"I am getting a little tired of saying throughout this run, what a great baseball game. It is a shame someone had to lose that one. It was just a good baseball game. I am tired and I didn't even play. I thought both clubs battled. We get down, and we battle back. We were down six runs. There were a lot of big plays and big pitches throughout. I thought both bullpens did an outstanding job all the way through. It was just a good solid baseball game, and we get to come back and play again tomorrow."

On their pitching and Durin O'Linger…
"This is a little bit like a conference weekend as opposed to a double elimination tournament. It is kind of like the Friday game. You've got to figure out how you are going to extend your starter from Friday if things aren't going perfectly. So, when we were down 6-0, we had to be careful not to burn too many arms. Now the great thing is that [Durin O'Linger] settled in and our bullpen did a great job of keeping it there. It became a usual game after that. Again, this is a last hoorah for him, so we are going to do things a little differently. You guys might think I am totally crazy, but I am watching the radar gun on the scoreboard, which I usually try not to do. This is his best velocity game that he has had. He touched 90 a couple of times and had a lot of 88's and 87's. He might have been a little too rested. He didn't pitch this last Saturday and only because he didn't locate his fast ball very well early which is his M.O. I think he got a little tired maybe, but then he settled in. Again, you might think I am crazy to say that he might have been a little too strong early and his command wasn't as good, but his velocity was as good as it's been."

On Mitchell Kilkenny and pitching of the game…
"From what I could tell, [Mitchell Kilkenny] was doing a great job of locating his fast ball. His velocity was good. I thought it was just a well-pitched ball game. The bullpens did a great job when you see the zeros going up in a high leverage situation. It was an impressive thing to watch from both sides of the pitching perspective."

On atmosphere of Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park…
"It was great. We have heard great things about it, and we knew the crowd was going to be loud, but they were appropriately loud. I thought it was great. I had some coach friends of mine text me and say I was going to love playing here. Teams that have played here and said that it is loud and we were really going to love playing here."

MAX BAZIN, SOPHOMORE SS

On being called out on the bunt…
"I am used to it though. I don't know if y'all were watching the regional at UNC, but the same thing happened. That run would have been nice to have because that was an inning that we kind of broke out a little bit and scored a couple of runs, but it is baseball. Not every call is going to go your way and sometimes they are just going to bang you out. There is nothing you can do about it. You can't change another person's mind."

CAM JOHNSON, JUNIOR CF

On their attitude when they were down 6-0…
"It was kind of just stay up and stay light. This was our first Super Regional, so we saw it as an opportunity. We just wanted to have fun with it."

On moving forward to game two…
"We played a great game. Really, we just need to go out and do the same thing tomorrow. We just need to try to get the bats going a little earlier. That's really it. It was a good game, and it could have gone either way."

On his batting…
"I was just staying patient and trying not to get too anxious because there was that no hitter. Just seeing it deep, trusting the bat and waiting for pitches to hit."