John Doxakis' near no-hitter wasted as Texas A&M falls to Ole Miss, 1-0

Another day, another goose egg at the dish for the Aggies.

The Aggies squandered an incredible start from John Doxakis on Thursday, making it back-to-back days they could not capitalize on stellar, masterful, amazing pitching performances. Texas A&M fell to Ole Miss, 1-0, in a game the Rebels had just two hits. Texas A&M is eliminated from the SEC Tournament and their offense is currently nonexistent.

Chris Weber was incredible Wednesday on the mound for the Aggies. John Doxakis was even better on Thursday as he flirted with history and carried a no-hit bid all the way into the ninth inning.

In the top of the ninth, with the ballgame still in a scoreless tie, Rob Childress went to his bullpen, a questionable move that prevented Doxakis from having a chance to finish his masterpiece. The left hander had thrown just 99 pitches.

“[Doxakis] did more than we needed him to do, asked him to do, just like he has all year long,” A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “He’s going to be on mound for us in eight days as well, and that’s where the decision was made.”

John Doxakis departed the ballgame having not allowed a hit through eight innings and struck out 10 Rebels. The only runners Ole Miss managed off him were via four walks.

“You never want to give up the ball in a game like that,” Doxakis said.

Bryce Miller took over on the hill for the Aggies in the ninth. Ole Miss immediately wrecked the no-hitter with a single by Thomas Dillard.

After a pop-up to the catcher, Miller was removed in favor of Chandler Jozwiak with coach Childress electing to play the match-up game against Ole Miss’ lineup. It would come back to bite the Aggies.

Before even delivering his first pitch of the outing, Jozwiak balked, and moved Dillard into scoring position with one out. A groundout to third kept the runner at second, now with two down.

The Rebels’ clean-up man, Cole Zabowski, stepped up with a chance to play hero. On what was just the second Ole Miss hit of the contest, Zabowski broke the tie with an RBI double that scored Dillard and gave Ole Miss the 1-0 lead. Unfortunately for the Aggies, that would be enough to lose the game as A&M’s anemic offense could not scratch anything across in the bottom of the ninth.

John Doxakis was dominant but his outing was wasted. Dox broke the SEC Tournament record for length of a no-hit bid with eight complete innings. This comes a day after A&M’s Chris Weber went seven and a third of no-hit ball to set the record that would ultimately be short-lived. In both instances, the Aggie offense couldn’t score a single run in either game to pick up the pitching staff.

Texas A&M managed just three hits off Ole Miss’ starter Doug Nikhazy as the lefty picked up his second victory over the Aggies this season. Nikhazy bested A&M in a contest back on April 26. A&M was able to pick up a fourth hit, a one-out double from Hunter Coleman, in the ninth off of Rebels closer Parker Caracci. Ultimately, they were unable to actually score what would have been the game-tying run.

The A&M offense has now gone 18 innings of baseball since they last scored a run. An Aggie has not crossed home plate since Jonathan Ducoff’s walk-off single plated Cam Blake in the tenth inning vs. Florida on Tuesday. Not even near no-hitters have been able to spark this struggling and (at times) nonexistent Aggie offense.

With A&M’s chances to win the program’s second SEC Tournament title dashed, the Aggies turn their attention to the NCAA Tournament where there is still a chance they could host a regional. The 16 regional host sites will be announced on Sunday evening and the rest of the field of 64 announced Monday at 11:00 a.m. CT during the NCAA Selection Show broadcasted on ESPNU.