A&M's slide slips to five straight as No. 7 Arkansas seals sweep, 8-7

Game #44: No. 7 Arkansas 8, Texas A&M 7
Records: Texas A&M (25-19, 9-12), Arkansas (33-11, 14-7)
WP: Cody Adcock (4-1)
LP: Will Johnston (3-2)
Save: Parker Coil (1)
Box Score

A weekend to forget comes to a close.

Nothing seemed to go right for Texas A&M pitching this weekend, and that story continued on Saturday as the Aggies were defeated by No. 7 Arkansas, 8-7, in the series finale in Fayetteville.

"Arkansas baseball is everything we want to make Texas A&M baseball," A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. "From the level of play to the ballpark atmosphere to the facility itself, so I'm hoping some people attached to our program learn that and we can get that going at A&M."

The Aggies have now dropped their last five ballgames and are three games below .500 in SEC play.

The tale of the game was that the margins are thin when it comes to winning baseball games.

In the first five innings, A&M pitching failed to get the job done, walking five batters, and the defense was unable to back them up, committing three errors.

Early on, starter Will Johnston was strong, striking out five in the first two innings.

In the third inning, the Razorbacks got to the Aggie left-hander.

Leadoff hitter John Bolton reached on a bunt single before moving to second on a throwing error. Bolton later scored on a sacrifice fly following a wild pitch that advanced him to third.

Chris Swann, TexAgs

Making his first start of the season, Will Johnston allowed two runs in three innings. It was his second appearance of the weekend.

Johnston surrendered another run in the third with an RBI single off the bat of Jace Bohrofen, extending the Arkansas lead to 2-0.

The Aggies turned to its bullpen after the third inning, but the relievers did not fare much better.

Left-hander Matt Dillard promptly walked the first two batters he faced, yet he surrendered only one run in his lone inning of work.

Arkansas broke things open in the fifth, scoring five runs on three hits and two walks against reliever Chris Cortez. A pair of errors made matters worse for A&M.

Much like the 14 walks in the ballgame on Thursday, the three errors made by A&M proved to be costly.

"The line between winning a series and getting swept is very thin, but it's very obvious," Schlossnagle said.

Before the Aggies had even scored a run, they found themselves down 8-0 through five innings. In those five innings, A&M only had two hits.

However, the A&M offense started to fight back in the later innings.

The Aggies loaded the bases up in the sixth before Ryan Targac’s pinch-hit two-run single. A&M shrunk the lead to 8-3 after Hunter Haas was hit by a pitch later on with the bases loaded.

Ben Bybee prevented further damage in the frame by striking out Jack Moss with the bases juiced.

Still, A&M continued to claw back. In the seventh inning, the Aggies added two more runs on Jace LaViolette’s sacrifice fly and Jordan Thompson’s RBI double.

A chance to flip the script was given to the Aggie lineup in the eighth as they quickly had runners on the corners after Haas reached on an error and Moss singled. Haas came across on Trevor Werner’s RBI fielder’s choice.

The hope of leveling up the score was thwarted as Austin Bost grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

Trailing 8-6 in the ninth, LaViolette brought the Aggies within one with his 11th home run of the season, but reliever Parker Coil retired the next three batters to seal the sweep.

Although they tried, the Aggie bats were unable to dig out of the large hole caused by their pitching woes.

"We play from behind all the time, so guys are used to that," Schlossnagle said. "If we would ever give our offense a chance to play from ahead, we could really run bases and do the things we want to do, then I'd think you'd see an even more prolific offense.

"We’ve got great kids. They just don't always play well. We better start playing well. Moral victories will leave you sitting home in the month of June."

For Schlossnagle and the Aggies, it will be about they finish the last three weeks of the regular season.

"There's nothing we can do about it now," Schlossnagle said. "We gotta get home, get rest, have a good practice on Monday and try to win a ballgame on Tuesday."

A&M will look to end this skid when Tarleton comes to Blue Bell Park on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT.