Diamond Thoughts: Mengden shines on mound, at plate in 3-1 win

GAME #7: Texas A&M 3, Pepperdine 1
RECORDS: Texas A&M 5-2; Pepperdine 5-2
WP: Daniel Mengden (2-0)
LP: Corey Miller (1-1)
S: Jason Jester (2)
BOX SCORE: LINK

COLLEGE STATION — Daniel Mengden was recruited to be the next great pitcher to wear the maroon and white. He was also recruited to be the type of middle-of-the-order bat that is capable of carrying an offense.

On Saturday, he did both.

On the mound, Mengden allowed one run in seven innings and struck out a career-high eight batters without issuing a walk. At the plate, the ultra-talented sophomore went 2-for-4 and came through with a clutch two-out, two-run, stand-up triple in the fifth inning to break a 1-1 tie and give the Aggies a 3-1 victory over Pepperdine in front of a raucous crowd of 5,539 at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.

"He's a special player and he's starting to feel comfortable," A&M head coach Rob Childress said. "He had a great freshman year and he's going to have a really good sophomore year. I really believe that. Daniel helped himself out in the bottom half of the [fifth] inning. He made it stand up. He pitched a scoreless seventh and then Jason Jester came in and gave us six outs."

Mengden used mostly fastballs with tremendous location within the strike zone during his 107-pitch gem, stifling the Waves' hitters throughout his outing. He gave up a soft single over second baseman Charlie Curl's head in the fifth inning for the only run the Ags allowed on the night. Other than that, there was nothing that Pepperdine could do to get going at the plate.

In three of Mengden's seven innings, he set down the Waves' hitters in order. The fifth inning was the only frame where Pepperdine managed more than one base runner. Other than the runner that scored in the fifth, only two other runners reached second base in the game.

Mengden's offensive effort was just as impressive as what he did with the ball in his right hand. He started it off with a sharp single to left field with two outs in the first inning.

And his fifth-inning triple came with two outs and runners at second and third. He took an outside pitch and smoked it to the opposite field ... down the first base line and into the right field corner for what turned out to be a game-winning triple.

"It was a great day for me overall," Mengden said. "We played great as a team. When we had our chances, we struck. This is just a great overall team win."

Co-starring in "The Daniel Mengden Show" on Saturday were Krey Bratsen and Jester. Bratsen went 2-for-3 from the nine-hole, driving in the first run of the game in the second inning with a line shot to right field, scoring Curl from second. He also belted a double down the left field line in the fifth and stole his third base of the year.

"Tonight was big time for my confidence," Bratsen said. "I have a lot more confidence this year than I did last year. I really need that right now. I don't care how I do personally, as long as we keep winning."

With a two-run lead headed into the eighth inning, Childress handed the ball to Jester and the right-handed fireballer made easy work of the Pepperdine bats over the final two frames to pick up his second save of the season. Jester faced just seven batters in two frames, allowing just one hit and no walks, striking out two.

"When you think about the closers that we've had here at Texas A&M, it's not necessary all [about] their stuff," Childress said. "It's more of what is inside them and what their mentality is. It's more of the makeup and them having a short memory and an aggressive attitude. Those are the best ones that I've ever had, and Jason is a closer. That's where he wants to be and he wants that ball in his hand at the end of the game."

The Aggies go for the series win on Sunday in a 1:05 p.m. first pitch against the Waves. Rafael Pineda takes the ball for A&M, opposite left-hander Aaron Brown for Pepperdine.

"There is a reason that we left [Pineda] on Sunday and didn't bump him up [in the rotation]," Childress said. "He gives you a chance every Sunday. He's going to throw a lot of strikes, induce contact early and get [us] off to a good start. I feel very good about going into Sunday in any situation with him on the mound."

---

Five Thoughts

1) The power of the 'stache was definitely at work in this one. Mengden and his sick (in the very best of terms) and thick 1980s mustache dominated the Waves almost single-handedly.

Think about his night in percentages. He threw seven of the nine innings ... or 77.8 percent of the innings. And offensively, he drove in two of the three runs ... or 66.7 percent. With that said, you can make a case that Mengden had over 70 percent of the total impact possible as a team. I can't tell you the last time I've seen one player do as much to impact a game like Mengden did on Saturday.

Just to give you some insight into how special of a player #15 truly is: He's probably the best catcher on the team but the Aggies don't want to use him behind the plate in an effort to save his legs. For pitchers, legs are everything, and catching takes way too much out of you for Mengden to catch all year.

But it would not surprise me at all if a team drafts Mengden in the first round of the 2014 MLB Draft and immediately makes him a priority prospect behind the plate. He's a kid that I could see making it to the big leagues as a position player or as a pitcher.

I said the same thing about Brooks Raley in 2009 and he reached the majors on the mound last season with the Cubs.

A&M is lucky to have gotten a player like this to campus. Mengden could have been a top five rounder out of high school but he made it clear that he wanted to play college baseball so he went undrafted.

As you can clearly see, that had nothing to do with his ability.

All too often, A&M would get snake bitten by an outstanding prospect choosing pro ball over Aggieland. In many years, it happened three or four times. But not this time, and the Aggies are in great shape because of Mengden's decision.

And judging by his continued development as a pitcher, I would say that the decision has been overwhelmingly positive for Mengden, too.


2) Bratsen has new contacts and a brand new vision prescription, and it's paying off in spades. He talked to us about that after the game and discussed how much better and more clearly he's seeing the ball out of the pitcher's hand ... especially breaking balls.

That probably has a lot to do with why we're seeing a vintage Bratsen in terms of his ability to hit the ball hard on a line or on the ground, utilizing his best tool — his speed — to get on base and create havoc on the base paths.

We cannot overlook the night that Bratsen had at the plate. Krey got the scoring started with a solid knock into right field and then stole second base before being stranded at third thanks to a diving snag by left fielder Chris Amezquita in left field on a Mikey Reynolds shot that would have easily scored Bratsen from second.

His other two at bats featured balls hit hard on the ground ... one resulting in a double down the left field line in which most guys would have not been able to stretch into two bases, and the other resulting in an inning-ending grounder to shortstop.

We're seeing very few popups and even fewer strikeouts. In fact, Krey has only two strikeouts through the first seven games of the 2013 season.


3) A question for the hard-core Aggie baseball fans: Who does Jester remind you of? Because I keep coming back to John Stilson when I watch him pitch. No, they are not all that similar in terms of outward appearance. Jester is much smaller of stature than Stilson.

But much like Stilson, Jester is a strike pumper with Wacha-like command of the strike zone and he absolutely hates the man that he's facing. He wants to dominate you and make you look silly while he's doing it. He doesn't just want to beat you, he wants to make you question whether you should continue playing baseball.

That's what I talk about when I use phrases like "mean disposition." All great closers have it, and Jester most definitely has it.

Jester's final line: 2 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts. He picked up his second save on the season. I think he'll get more saves this season than Stilson had, when he managed 10 saves in that masterful season back in 2010.

Who's better? We'll see. It's hard to go against Stilson out of fear of bodily harm, but I will reserve judgement for the end of this season. Ask me again in late June (hopefully).


4) While the Aggie bats, on the whole, are off to a typical February start, the pitching numbers are as dominant as they've ever been through two weeks under Rob Childress ... and that's saying something. Here are the numbers on the whole for Aggie pitching through seven games: 1.71 ERA, 2 saves, 63 innings, 46 hits, 15 runs, 12 earned runs, 13 walks, 59 strikeouts, .210 B/Avg.

Think about those stats for a minute. A&M has used a total of 13 arms so far — including seven first-year pitchers — and has a team ERA under 2.00. It's giving up far less than one hit per inning and one earned run and one walk about every five innings.

Aggie pitching also strikes out more than four batters for every walk that it has issues this season. Just mind-blowing numbers when you really think about it.


5) I said going into this series that we would know a lot more about this team at the end of the series than we did going in. I'll close with this ... a few quick things that we are learning about the Aggies:

A) Mengden is really good at baseball.

B) Bratsen is not the same player that he was last year, which is a very good thing.

C) Don't look now, but this A&M team can flat out play defense. They get to a lot of balls, are excellent fielders and throw the ball with great accuracy.

D) The Aggies can really pitch. But we've known that since not too long after Childress arrived on campus in 2006.

E) Jester is among the very best closers in college baseball.

F) Reynolds coming back for his senior year and giving pro ball the stiff arm was maybe the single biggest offseason move of 2012.

G) The Aggies will have trouble hitting the long ball this season. Sure, the weather is cold and the wind is ripping in from center field, which makes it tough on hitters. And sure, we've seen A&M smoke some balls that might have gone out in April and May that are dying in the outfield in late February. But how many balls off of an Aggie bat have even traveled to the warning track this season?

Zero? One? Two?

A&M will obviously have to figure out ways to manufacture runs this year. But a team built around pitching, defense and speed has a ton of all three. So I wouldn't worry all that much about what will likely be another year with a lacking in the power department.

It's not quite the same as night baseball at Olsen Field in a big weekend series, but there is something special about Sunday afternoon with a series win on the line against a good opponent. That is what will be offered this week.

Pineda and the Ags have a chance to claim the series over the Waves. It should be a nice day at the park and this is a chance to see two of the very best Sunday starting pitchers in all of college baseball in Pineda and Brown. Sounds like it could be a family day for me, so Beau will have the report and thoughts on the series finale at the conclusion of game three.