Texas A&M bullpen arms fail to deliver, Aggies fall to Kentucky, 7-6

Last night against Kentucky, it was the A&M bats that faltered in the loss. Tuesday night in Austin, it was the Aggies' defense that let them down, and this afternoon it was a bullpen that couldn’t hold a lead. The Aggies played error-free baseball and scored six runs but came up just short, falling to Kentucky, 7-6.

The bats of both teams were quiet through the first three innings, but A&M’s offensive catalyst, Braden Shewmake got the Aggies on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo-HR to right-center field.

“I was looking the other way for something else out over the plate. He hung a breaking ball, and I got a hold of it," said Shewmake.

A&M added another run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a Cole Bedford ground-ball double that got past the diving glove of the Wildcat shortstop and into shallow center field. That allowed George Janca to score from second base to extend the lead to 2-0.

Toeing the rubber to start the game for the Aggies on Saturday was sophomore righty Stephen Kolek, who was near-perfect through six innings, allowing just two hits.

“Stephen Kolek threw a masterful game; I probably should’ve let him ride looking back. The bullpen just let us down today,” said A&M head coach Rob Childress.

Kolek also had some nice defense behind him with the trio of Shewmake, Austin Homan and Joel Davis combining to turn three double-plays for the starter.

"(The double-plays were) Huge. I love double-plays; they’re my best friend,” said Kolek.

Kolek came out to start the seventh inning for the Aggies but gave up three quick hits and a sac-fly to score a run, and his day was done. Childress then turned to freshman reliever to John Doxakis out of the bullpen with runners on first and second. Doxakis only faced one batter, giving up a RBI-single to Luke Heyer to tie the game, 2-2.

Next out of the pen came Corbin Martin, Martin struck out the first batter he faced but then gave up a 2-RBI single to right field, and when the top of the seventh came to an end, the Aggies trailed, 4-2.

A&M wasted no time in responding, though, answering with a 4-spot of their own in the bottom of the seventh inning. 

The frame got started with a Walker Pennington double off the wall in right-center, he later scored on a fielder's choice ground ball. Homan came around to score on a bloop single to shallow left-center, a ball he read perfectly off the bat to know it would fall. The final A&M run of the day came on a balk by Kentucky reliever Zach Pop, scoring Nick Choruby to give A&M a 6-4 lead.

But the Aggie bullpen just had no answer for Kentucky.

Landon Miner started the eighth inning for A&M, but only saw four batters, giving up one hit, one walk, one hit-by-pitch and retiring one. Then came Cason Sherrod. The first batter Sherrod faced was pinch-hitter Storm Wilson, who proceeded to line a single to right, score two runs and tie the game, 6-6.

Kentucky took the lead for good in the top of the ninth on a two-strike suicide squeeze bunt by Zach Reks that scored Marcus Carson on a play at the plate. Kentucky reliever Logan Salow retired the top of the Aggie order 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning to end the game.

“We just didn’t get it done out of the bullpen, bottom line ... I was disappointed we weren’t able to find a way to win. Tomorrow will be a big day, biggest day of the year,” said Childress.

A&M will be back in action tomorrow from Olsen Field for the series finale with Kentucky. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m., and Mitchell Kilkenny is scheduled to take the ball for the Aggies.