Aggies roll, Tide blows lead in SEC tournament
The Aggies baseball team put together a dominant performance against the Florida Gators in the second round of the SEC conference tournament on Thursday morning, advancing them to a third round tilt with the Alabama Crimson Tide on Friday evening.
After Micah Dallas put together a stellar pitching performance on Thursday, the Aggies turned to their ace Nathan Dettmer on Friday, but in unusual fashion the A&M defense gave Dettmer no help committing 4 errors leading to 4 runs in the first inning and a third before Dettmer was removed for Jacob Palisch.
Palisch lasted 2.2 innings and gave up 2 more runs as the Aggies fell into a 6-1 hole in the by the end of the fourth inning.
But that’s when the Aggie bats woke up, and you might say, the tide turned.
Dylan Rock got the Aggie comeback started with a three-run homer in the top of the fifth, to pull the Ags within two, and Kole Kaler singled in the top of the 6th to drive in two more and tie the game, and Jack Moss and Rock were both hit by pitches, driving in A&M’s 7th run, and giving them their first lead of the night.
Reliever Chris Cortez was able to keep the Bama bats grounded through the 5th and 6th innings allowing the A&M stampede the chance to pull in front, and in the top of the 7th, they blew the game open, on another RBI single from Kaler, and a three run bomb by Trevor Werner pushed the lead to 11-6.
The tide pulled to within 3 in the bottom of the inning, but it was too little too late, and the Aggies advanced to the Semi-finals, sending Alabama to the losers bracket.
A&M will await the winner of an elimination game between Alabama and Florida on Saturday morning, who they’ll face Saturday evening with a spot in the championship on the line.
