Published: May 07, 2008 01:15 am            

Aggie bats slam SHSU 13-9

Kats score six runs in 9th, but come up short in loss to No. 5 Texas A&M

Sam Houston State led early and made a game of it late, but the fifth-ranked Texas A&M baseball squad did enough in-between to spoil Bearkats head coach Mark Johnson’s first game against his former team.

Thanks to four home runs, the Aggies (41-8) were able to withstand a six-run, ninth-inning rally to hand the Bearkats (30-20) a 13-9 setback in front of a Don Sanders Stadium record crowd of 1,821 on Tuesday night.

Texas A&M cranked out 22 hits in the victory, with center fielder Kyle Colligan leading the attack with four, including a two-run blast to left that put the Aggies up 10-3 in the eighth. Dane Carter and Brodie Greene each hit solo home runs and had three hits apiece, while designated hitter Luke Anders added a three-run bomb in the fourth.

Nick Zaleski led the Kats at the plate, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Keith Stein, Seth Hammock, Heath Pugh and Ryan Trevino each finished with two hits.

“They have a good ballclub and that’s the bottom line,” said Johnson about the Aggies, who he coached from 1986 to 2005 and guided to five conference championships and two College World Series appearances. “I was pleased that we didn’t back off of them. We obviously didn’t have a pitcher to throw nine innings at them, so we tried to mix it up and got some guys some work.”

Down 13-3 heading into the final inning, the Bearkats finally strung something together after taking a three-run lead with a run in the second and two more in the third on an RBI double by Hammock and a single by Zaleski.

Trevino got the inning started with a double to left-center field off reliever Travis Starling and came around to score on a two-out single by right fielder Todd Sebek, who transferred from A&M two years ago. Stein, another former Aggie, and Bobby Verbick followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases.

Hammock was hit by a pitch to drive in Sebek. Zaleski made it 13-7 with a two-run single and Pugh kept the rally going with a double to cut the lead to four. But Starling got Jamie Rohlmeier to ground out to short to end the contest with the game-winning run on deck.

“It’s kind of like last year, we just keep battling,” Stein said about the late rally. “It’s not over until the fat lady sings, so we are going to give it our all until somebody gets us out.”

The Bearkats trotted nine different pitchers to the mound Tuesday night. Freshman Matt Shelton got the start and held the Aggies scoreless in two innings of work.

Shelton benefited from a solid 6-4-3 double play to help get out of a jam in the first when shortstop Ryan Weber made a diving grab on a grounder up the middle, flipped it to second with his glove and Rohlmeier fired to first with two runners on base and no outs.

Then in the second, Shelton struck out three of the four batters he faced and left the game with a 1-0 lead after Zaleski scored on a fielder’s choice to short by Trevino in the bottom of the inning.

Freshman Zach Neal shut out Texas A&M in the third, but Anders tied it with a three-run homer (his 13th of the season) over the right-field wall off freshman Justin Jackson in the fourth.

SHSU freshman Brent Powers (2-3) gave up a run in the sixth on an RBI single by Jose Duran to pick up the loss. Dallas Gallant, Casey Springer, Zac Baker and Will Skelton combined to pitch the final four innings for the Kats and gave up nine runs between them.

“Matt Shelton got us off to a good start and we got an outstanding double play to back him up in the first inning,” Johnson said. “I threw two freshman out there (Jackson and Neal), who hadn’t pitched in five weeks. I was glad to see them out there again.”

It was a bitter-sweet game for Stein. The former Aggie went 2-for-5 with a pair of runs scored, reached on an error and made a highlight-reel diving catch on a sharply hit line drive to left-center field that robbed A&M catcher Brian Ruggiano of extra bases in the fourth.

But his new squad couldn’t find a way to pull it out against his former team, who he never thought he would face.

“It was different,” the senior said. “Even when I would be playing video games and was facing the Aggies, I would just skip it. It was different, but it wasn’t too bad. It was just weird seeing A&M on the uniforms in the other dugout.

“I was happy with the way I played, but I would have traded it for a ‘w.’ But if we are going to lose, at least we did it respectable by fighting to the end.”

        

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