Recap No. 18 Texas A&M vs Rice

Texas A&M completes the season sweep of the Rice Owls in an unconventional final run

No. 15 Texas A&M (15-6) played their third game against the Rice Owls in 17 days and it wasn’t a walk in the park. The Owls (11-10) got an early lead and had a few massive hits to tie the game late, but the Maroon and White would eventually take the win with an unorthodox RBI in the ninth.

The Owls, looking to avoid the season sweep, came out swinging a heavy bat. They scored the first three runs of the game off two center-field home runs to go up 3-0 at the top of the third inning.

Hank Bard got the Aggies’ first hit of the game with a double, followed by a Kasen Wells RBI double. Wanting to get in on the hitting action, Hunter Haas smacked a double-scoring Wells. To round out the scoring effort, Jack Moss lined a triple to right center scoring Haas. Texas A&M scored three runs on four hits to tie the game 3-3 going into the top of the fourth.

Over the next four innings the Aggies would tack on four runs with a Jace LaViolette and Trevor Werner both hitting home runs. So, at this point in the game, it’s at the top of the ninth and Texas A&M has a pretty comfortable 7-3 lead.

Yeah, Rice wasn’t going to make it easy. After a single, Rice hit a bomb to left center to cut the lead by two. That caused coach Schloss to bring in Will Johnston fresh off his stellar outing against LSU. Well, it didn’t quite work out the way Aggie fans thought. Johnston struck out the first batter he faced then he gave up a single followed by another homer to tie the game. Johnston lasted a few more batters until Robert Hogan was brought in and proceeded to strike out the batter for the final out.

Here we are in the bottom of the ninth tied, 7-7 in the rain, with worried fans. However, the law firm of Wells, Haas, and Moss would all reach base safely, and with the winning run on third base and no outs, Rice was feeling the pressure. Austin Bost and the Rice pitcher worked to a full count and with the game on the line the pitcher hits Bost advancing everyone for an anti-climatic end to the game after a review of the play. But hey, a win is a win.

Final Score: Aggies 8, Owls 7 – W: Hogan, Robert (1-0); L: Long, Justin (2-2)

The Aggies will travel to Knoxville Tennessee on March 24 – 26 to take on the Tennessee Vols.

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