Texas A&M baseball entered the weekend hoping to continue the momentum they gained by taking two of three at No. 1 Tennessee last weekend. It’s safe to say they accomplished that mission in just about the most dramatic way possible, completing the sweep of South Carolina with one of the more improbably 9th inning comebacks you’ll ever see.
Game 1: The Aggies got a grand slam by Blake Binderup to take control of the game, 6-3, through three innings. but the Gamecocks crept back in it and eventually forced extra innings. But Weston Moss provided valuable innings out of the bullpen, allowing just one run in 3.1 IP, and set up Caden Sorrell for the dramatic walk-off solo home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the 10th inning.
Game 2: If games 1 and 3 were filled with late-game heroics, consider this the drama-free pleasure fest. The Aggies scored four runs in the first inning and never looked back, scoring multiple runs in every inning except one en route to a 17-0 drubbing that wrapped up in seven innings due to the run rule. Bear Harrison paced the Ags with seven RBIs, and starting pitcher Justin Lamkin threw six innings of shutout baseball before Brad Rudis pitched the final frame.
Game 3: Folks will be talking about this one for a while. A tight ballgame got blown wide open in the middle innings (and not in a good way) when South Carolina scored seven runs in the 5th inning and four more in 6th to take a 12-2 lead. The Aggies chipped away at that lead, but still trailed 12-7 heading into the bottom of the 9th, and a loss seemed virtually inevitable.
Then this happened.
The Aggies loaded the bases with two singles and a walk, and Michael Earley had Hayden Schott pinch hit for LF Jamal George. Schott delivered with a GRAND SLAM homer to left-center, bringing the Ags to within one run still with no outs. Despite a Terrence Kiel groundout and a Bear Harrison strikeout, the Aggies were able to load the bases again, this time thanks to two walks and a single. And that brought up Kaden Kent (who had led off the inning with a single and scored on Schott’s grand slam). Kent then blasted a monster shot down the right field line to seal the game and insanity ensued. A&M completed the sweep, 15-12.
Kent, of course, is the same player who all but sealed Texas A&M’s trip to Omaha last season thanks to a grand slam against Oregon in the Super Regionals. It’s safe to say that Jeff Kent’s son has a flair for the dramatic.
After a disastrous 1-9 start to SEC (preceded by a pretty awful run through non-conference play), this A&M team has undoubtedly found something). They’ve won each of their last five SEC games. Two of them have been run-rules, but two of them have also been on walk-off home runs. The schedule gets even tougher the rest of the way, with three of A&M’s last five SEC series coming against teams currently ranked in the top 10 nationally. But after posting a -31 run differential in their first 10 SEC games, the Ags have a +38 run differential in their past five. Sitting at 6-9 in SEC play, there is still a lot of work to be done if this team hopes to climb back into the NCAA Tournament conversation (they likely need to win at least 7 of their remaining 15 conference games to have a shot); but they have given Aggie fans reason to hope where there was none just nine short days ago.
