The Texas A&M baseball team hosted the Gamecocks of South Carolina for a weekend Southeastern Conference tilt at Blue Bell Park, and the fireworks ensued.
The Aggies, looking to extend their hot streak of four consecutive conference series wins, got off to a great start on Friday evening, scoring 16 runs, powered by five long balls. Sophomore Nathan Dettmer wasn’t as sharp on the mound, as in weeks past, giving up 3 runs on 7 hits in only 4.2 innings, but the A&M bats made sure it didn’t matter. Joseph Menefee earned the win, pitching 3.1 innings of 2 hit, 1 run ball, as the Aggies took Game 1 by a score of 16-4.
Saturday afternoon got off to a rougher start, as the Gamecocks jumped out to a 9-0 lead after 4 innings, but the Aggies came roaring back, scoring 5 in the 5th including a Ryan Targac grand slam. After scoring one more in the 7th, the Aggies plated 5 more in the 8th to take a 1 run lead going into the 9th.
A Braylon Wimmer home run and an Aggie throwing error put South Carolina back in front 12-11 going into the bottom half of the ninth, where it was Brett Minnich’s turn to play the hero, with his walk-off two-run homerun, giving the Aggies a 13-12 comeback win, and providing an opportunity to secure a sweep on Sunday afternoon.
The sweep effort came up short as the Gamecocks scored 9 runs on homeruns by 5 different players, and held the Aggies to only 4 runs to take the series finale and avoid being swept out of College Station. But the Aggies had clinched their 5th consecutive conference series win with only a matter of weeks until the end of the regular season.
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