A&M baseball left standing after massive slugfest with South Carolina

GAME #50: Texas A&M 15, South Carolina 14
RECORDS: Texas A&M 42-8 (17-8), SC 29-22 (11-15)
WP: Corbin Martin (2-0)
LP: Taylor Widener (1-4)
BOX SCORE

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In the truest form of a slugfest, A&M and South Carolina combined for 36 hits, 29 runs and 386 pitches.

Nine homers were pounded over every part of the outfield wall, each shot seemingly grander than the last. All told, the game spun around so many times, it was a shock that either squad was still standing by days end.

But when the merry go round finally stopped on Saturday in front of 7,296 at Olsen Field, A&M walked out with a 15-14 victory.

The craziness was one sided in the beginning.

Ryan Hendrix made bases loaded jams disappear in the first and third innings. Sandwiched in between the magic act lied the second inning.

In the second, a one out single was followed by a line drive to right center. A&M had plenty of time to make a play at the plate, but a botched relay put an end to that. With a 1-0 lead, South Carolina kept building.

A walk and single created another run before Hendrix mustered back to back strikeouts to limit the damage to just two runs.

The Aggies weren’t as fortunate in the fourth.

Hendrix had thrown over 80 pitches coming into the inning and wouldn’t make it out the other side. Before he was replaced with Matt Kent, South Carolina clobbered Hendrix for back-to-back homeruns, one to each side of the field. With a 5-0 lead, it felt like the Gamecocks were sucking the fight out of the maroon and white.

“Down 5-0, it would have been easy for us to say it wasn’t our day,” Said A&M coach Rob Childress on the team’s mindset during that stretch. “Then we started scoring in the fourth inning and they couldn’t hang a zero one us the rest of the day.”

The Aggies ability to get off the mat has been impressive all season and they did it multiple times on Saturday. The first of those resuscitations came in the fourth.

A leadoff walk by Mitchell Nau and Logan Taylor taking a pitch to the body set the stage for the men behind them. Hunter Melton took advantage with A&M’s first RBI on a hard hit single. One J.B. Moss sac sly later and the Ags had pulled the game to 5-2.

It was at that point that Logan Nottebrok made the entire crowd rise to its feet as he cleared the bases and the left field wall with a massive two run homer.

A&M was within one and the madness was just starting to unfold.

After a leadoff single in the fifth, Blake Allemand moved to third on a perfect hit and run single from Ryne Birk. He scored a play later on a passed ball, but his best moment was yet to come.

With the game tied at five, Nick Banks doubled to center and gave A&M its first lead.

South Carolina responded with back-to-back four run innings.

In the sixth, they scored all of them with two outs. Four singles, one double put the Gamecocks ahead 9-6. In the next inning, two homeruns and an Aggie error helped pave their way to thirteen runs and knock Kent from the contest.

All the while, the Aggies kept fighting. Something Ryne Birk has come to expect from this team.

“We just kept battling. We fell down a couple of times, but we got back up and threw some punches back at them.” Birk continued. “This team is unbelievable. We just don’t like losing.”

Between the sixth and eighth innings, Birk hit two separate two run homeruns. Hunter Melton had his second solo blast in as many days and Blake Allemand drove in a run of his own.

Those offensive outbursts took the game into the ninth at 13-12, with South Carolina holding a slight lead.

After a passed ball in the top half scored a run, A&M had a brilliant story waiting just three runs away.

Hunter Melton began to write it with another solo home run. The bomb to center moved the scoreboard to 14-13. Then, J.B. Moss made his way to second after a high fly to right was dropped. A pinch hitter and pinch runner later up came the shortstop with the hot hand.

On his father’s birthday and for the first time in his career, Blake Allemand ended the game with a walk off hit. The two RBI double sent Olsen into a frenzy from the second it took off, something Allemand will cherish.

“That was incredible. To have my first ever walk off hit on senior weekend is just surreal.” But he’ll be the first to say he did not do it alone. “So many guys in front of me made that possible, so many great at bats. This is the ultimate team win.”

It was an up and down ride, but the team was set on punching to the end.

“We’ve all got the mindset that we’re going to win. No matter what.” Said Birk. “If we’re down ten runs in the last inning, we’re going to try and win at all costs.”