Ags score eight unanswered vs. Kentucky to claim first SEC win of 2025
Game #25: Texas A&M 9, Kentucky 7
Records: Texas A&M (13-12, 1-6), Kentucky (15-9, 2-5)
WP: Weston Moss (3-2)
LP: Nile Adcock (1-1)
Box Score
P.H. DuVal, Jr. and the angel would be proud.
After all, they've never seen 'em quit.
Trailing 7-1 after the top of the fourth, Texas A&M showed that all familiar grit and rattled off eight unanswered in a 9-7 victory over Kentucky at Blue Bell Park on Friday night.
"We kept playing, and we played for nine innings. Period," Aggie skipper Michael Earley said. "We've fought all year. We've fought, and we've been in every single game that we've lost in conference, and I just thought we played nine.
"At-bats were good. Guys performed when they needed to perform, but they also did stuff to win the game. I was proud of them."
Previously, A&M was winless in conference play. The Aggies were averaging 2.5 runs per loss vs. SEC opponents.
Solid starting pitching was usually let down by a lack of timely hitting.
However, the roles reversed on Friday.
Starter Ryan Prager was uncharacteristically beaten around for three innings.
The Wildcats tagged the Aggie ace for eight hits and seven runs.
Down 6-1, Prager departed after Luke Lawrence's triple began the fourth.
Enter Weston Moss.
"I'm going to finish this game. They really need me," Moss said of his mindset. "Prager's awesome, but he didn't have it today. I got to go in there and have his back because he has our backs a lot.
"(Earley) said, 'Let's blank go.' That's all I needed."
A Cole Hage sacrifice fly scored Lawrence. It was Kentucky's final run as Moss spun six scoreless frames en route to an unlikely win.
The right-hander combined a mid-90s fastball with a wipeout slider, allowing just three hits and striking out six.
"I'm pretty excited out there, and I have a lot of fun, as you can see," Moss said. "Off the field, I feel like I'm a quiet person, and on the field, I just let loose and let it out."
His brilliant emotion-filled relief outing gave A&M's offense time to get off the mat.
Trailing by six, the Aggies scored two in the fourth, five in the fifth and added an insurance marker in the sixth.
"That's what we've been missing all season, just with runners on, just not doing our job and striking out and getting out in some way," catcher Bear Harrison said. "We put up really good at-bats tonight and drove in runs when we needed to when there's guys on base. That's huge coming into this weekend. We need to do that more."
Often plagued by the strikeout, A&M punched out only four times as starter Scott Rouse was chased in the fifth. Kentucky skipper Nick Mingione needed four different arms to get through a fifth inning that saw the Ags take a lead they'd never relinquish.
Ben Royo started the rally with a first-pitch line drive single to center. After a Kaeden Kent walk, Wyatt Henseler's single cut the deficit to 7-4.
After a Jace LaViolette single, Terrence Kiel II doubled home a pair.
"You want to feel good as a hitter, and I hope some guys feel good, but there's no lapse. There's no let-up," Earley said. "That was great. That was awesome, but that's what we expect. That's how you play when you play here. Just proud of them.
"Shower, and then it's over, and let's get up, and you've got to bring it again tomorrow."
LaViolette tied the game on Gavin Kash's sacrifice fly, and after swiping third base, Kiel crossed home plate on a Devin Burkes throwing error.
Suddenly, the 7-1 hole turned into an 8-7 lead.
"It's huge," Harrison said. "You can't think about it too much. We've got to come out and win the series tomorrow and win the next day. We'll celebrate this for tonight, and we'll wake up tomorrow as the same players we are for this game today."
The backstop finished 2-for-3 with a second-inning home run and a trio of RBIs. Kiel doubled twice. LaViolette and Royo were both 2-for-4.
By minimizing the swing-and-miss, A&M finally excelled in situational-hitting opportunities, going 4-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
It was the type of offensive performance the 5,952 at Olsen Field — and countless Aggies everywhere — had been waiting for.
"The belief has never been lost," Earley said. "We've never thought we can't win. Yes, winning, I think, definitely helps that, for sure. In the situation we're in and where we're at, like we needed to win.
"The belief has always been there. You've got to shift your focus, and hopefully, right there, it's like you expect to win. You're not waiting on something to happen. I felt like that the entire game. I felt good even when we got down 7-1 just because of how the energy was and how the at-bats were going."
While the comeback doesn't erase A&M's 0-6 start to SEC play, it does highlight the importance of building off the momentum gained on Friday night.
The same grit will be required when the series continues on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT.
