Texas drops midweek game to Texas A&M, 6-5

[Jameson McCausland]

The Texas 6 game winning streak came to a halt on Tuesday night, when Texas A&M used a big 1st inning and held off several Texas rallies to defeat the Longhorns by a final of 6-5. Let’s take a look at some news, notes and thoughts from an entertaining game in College Station

• It was not a good start for starter Nico O’Donnell, who after retiring the first batter of the game, allowed 4 straight batters (2 walks and 2 hits) to reach before Texas went to the bullpen. O’Donnell has struggled with command at times this year, but really struggled to find the strike zone in the 1st. There will be better days ahead for the freshman, but it was definitely a night to forget.
  
• Kamron Fields came on in relief of O’Donnell and looked very good. Fields showed a very good slider, striking out 4 in 2 ⅔ innings. The future is very bright for the right-hander, and it’s easy to see him being a dominant pitcher down the road.
  
  
  “I thought he was great. He wanted the ball and he’s really a 50 pitch max guy right now. He did a great job of keeping us in the game and moving it to the next guy.”- David Pierce on Fields effort in relief
  

[*]It was a night of missed opportunities for the Texas offense. The Longhorns had the bases loaded in 3 different innings, but were unable to push any runs across:

• 
  
  With 2 outs in the 3rd, David Hamilton popped out to SS
  
• With 1 out in the 5th, Jake McKenzie bounced into a 6-4-3 double play with the tying run at 3rd
  
• With 2 outs in the 8th, Ryan Reynolds grounded back to the pitcher with the tying run on 3rd
  

[*]Kody Clemens was again a key source of the Texas offense. With the Longhorns trailing 4-0 in the 5th, Clemens smacked a 2-run double to LF. In the 7th, Clemens led off the inning with an infield single and later came around to score on an infield single by Ryan Reynolds. Clemens also drove home the Longhorns final run of the game in the 8th on a single to RF, scoring Masen Hibbeler and cutting the Aggies lead to 6-5.

[*]Zach Zubia’s on-base streak is now at 34 games after the redshirt freshman went 1 for 2 with a RBI and 3 walks. Zubia did a good job of laying off some tough pitches in key situations as Texas made their comeback.

[*]As has been the trend for most of the season, the Texas defense was outstanding throughout the night. Ryan Reynolds and David Hamilton each made 2 barehanded plays to save infield singles.

[*]Texas will return home for a few days before heading to Norman, Oklahoma for a 3 game series with the Sooners. Oklahoma currently sits in 1st place in the Big 12 and recently took 2 of 3 from TCU in Fort Worth last weekend. Longhorn pitching will be tested by an Oklahoma offense that has 3 starters hitting over .300.

 

[tejasrulz]

From what I saw the aggy SS made the play of the game when he prevented the ball from going into the outfield on a hit up the middle when Texas had men on 2nd and 3rd. Only the man on 3rd scored and the runner from 2nd had to stay at 3rd and ended up being stranded there.

The aggy reliever talking to himself, very strange but he is an aggy.

The bubbles after the game are ....... lets say weak, very weak, even for aggy.

 

[Jameson McCausland]

From what I saw the aggy SS made the play of the game when he prevented the ball from going into the outfield on a hit up the middle when Texas had men on 2nd and 3rd. Only the man on 3rd scored and the runner from 2nd had to stay at 3rd and ended up being stranded there.

The aggy reliever talking to himself, very strange but he is an aggy.

The bubbles after the game are ....... lets say weak, very weak, even for aggy.

The A&M SS, Braden Shewmake, is only a sophomore and a really, really good player. I heard about him coming out of HS and his dad is actually the head baseball coach for the University of Texas at Dallas. Very good chance he hears his name called very early in the draft next year.

I was also impressed with A&M’s closer Nolan Hoffman, who was throwing around 93 MPH and getting great sink on the ball with his side arm release point.

As a whole, Texas did a lot of damage against some very good arms. Kolek, Cason and Hoffman are all thought very highly of and Texas put up runs against each of them.

 

[Bear19]

We lost. That’s all that matters.

 

[drgilbert]

Why were the aggies holding up their shoes. 

 

[Johnstark23]

Gotta throw strikes and quality strikes on the road. Go win 2 out of 3 or better from Skip. 

 

[java]

Sing it, Brother!  btw, what time is it?