No. 20 Texas A&M's late rally falls short as Zags take down Aggies, 6-4
In a Friday night fight that came down to the wire, Texas A&M was unable to pull off a late comeback and fell to the Bulldogs of Gonzaga, 6-4. It was the first Friday night contest that A&M has lost all season.
John Doxakis got the start for the Maroon and White, and immediately things did not go well for the Aggie southpaw. Gonzaga got two runs on four hits in the first frame off of Doxakis, putting A&M behind the eight ball early.
“It was just lack of focus and not giving my team a chance to win,” said Doxakis after the loss. “Hats off to Gonzaga, they were hitting pitches and their two-strike approach was amazing.”
While the box score won’t reflect it, Doxakis didn’t pitch as poorly as he might say. He certainly wasn’t the same pitcher who came into the contest with an ERA of 0.43, but three of the Zags’ hits in the first inning were weakly hit balls that fell in the right spots. However, the fact of the matter was that Doxakis didn’t have his best stuff and the Bulldogs capitalized. Shortstop Josh Bristyan had an RBI in the first and he would add another one in the third, pushing the lead to 3-0 Gonzaga.
Texas A&M, on the other hand, got off to another slow start at the plate. Part of that was due to the fact that A&M seems to have a habit a little cold out of the gate, but a lot of the credit goes to Bulldog’s ace, Casey Legumina. Legumina pitched an outstanding five innings in which he only gave up four hits, struck out five and walked just one.
The Aggies were able to run his pitch count up and Legumina was pulled heading into the sixth inning. That was when the A&M comeback started. Despite giving up three runs in the top half, the Aggies responded in the bottom of the frame as both Coleman brothers went to work. Hunter Coleman launched his second homerun over the wall in left center field and younger brother Ty ripped an RBI single into left field two batters later.
The Aggies would tack on two more in the bottom of the eight thanks to RBI singles from Will Frizzell and Logan Foster, but when A&M had a chance to tie the game in the ninth, the Olsen Magic ran out. With one out and runners on second and third, the Aggies were unable to push across any more runs, giving game one to the Zags.
Despite the early struggles for the pitching staff, tonight the blame fell on situational hitting. Even though the Aggies amassed 14 hits in the contest, Texas A&M would leave an astounding 13 runners on base, including eight in scoring position.
“Sure, it’s frustrating,” said outfielder Cam Blake when asked about tonight’s inconsistency in clutch moments. “But, [they are] lessons for later on in the season. We’d rather this happen now than later on in the SEC.”
Granted, the scoreboard didn’t favor the Aggies at the end of the night, but to the team’s credit, they battled and fought back, despite being down 6-0 at one point. The Aggies will need that grit and toughness if they want to not only win the series against Gonzaga, but also if they want to compete for an SEC crown.
When asked what the message to the team was heading into tomorrow, Cam Blake put it rather simply: “[We’ve] got to go win two and play as hard as we can.”
Texas A&M will return to the diamond tomorrow afternoon as Asa Lacy will take to the hill looking to right the ship. First pitch is expected to be at 2:02pm.