Texas A&M drops their opening game in the SEC tournament 5-3 to Mississippi State

Texas A&M couldn’t get the bats going as the get upset by Mississippi State in their opening game in the SEC tournament

Texas A&M falls to 5-3 Mississippi State late, dropping them into the loser’s bracket in a must-win game

Regarding strategies in double elimination, the Aggies went with Brad Rudis, who has limited starts, compared to Mississippi State, who went with their All-SEC ace Khai Stephen. Unfortunately for A&M, it didn’t quite work out the way they wanted, giving up three early runs to go down 3-0 going into the bottom of the third.

The Aggies started to chip away while struggling to get hits. The first run came in the second half of the third inning when Jace LaViolette hit an infield RBI, scoring Ali Camarillo. Later in the sixth inning, A&M was able to tie the game with a Jackson Appel sacrifice fly to right field and a Hayen Shott double, making it a 3-3 game.

With the game locked up going into the ninth inning and Chris Cortez having pitched a perfect few innings, the Aggies looked poised to get to the bottom of the inning with a chance to win. However, Cortez’s control issues popped up at the wrong time, and with one out, they hit back-to-back hitters on the bases. Aschenbeck came in to try to get them out of the inning unscathed but loaded the bases on a throwing error, then, with two out, gave up a single that allowed the Bulldogs to bring home the 5-3 lead before getting the final out of the inning.

Mississippi State would proceed to retire the Aggies to win their second straight game and move into the winner’s bracket. Chris Cortez showed a lot of good stuff and stuck out five batters but ended up sustaining the loss.

Texas A&M will face Tennessee in an elimination game on Thursday morning.

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