Sam Houston St. routs A&M

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M is fortunate Dakota Mills pitches in the Southland Conference and not the Southeastern Conference.

For a second consecutive season, Sam Houston State’s Mills dominated the Aggies, this time 8-2 Tuesday night at Blue Bell Park.

“He was really on top of his game tonight,” Sam Houston State coach Matt Deggs said. “He was able to locate strike one with his fastball and expand with the fastball to both sides of the plate. And he had a really tight slider working.”

The No. 23 Aggies (35-18) have lost three consecutive games and five of their last six, and they will try and get back on track starting Thursday night at home against Arkansas in the final SEC series of the regular season. After losing two of three in each of their last two SEC series, the Aggies likely will go on the road for an NCAA tournament regional.

“This is a wake-up call for us,” A&M outfielder Blake Kopetsky said of the recent losses.

Mills (6-3), a Dulles product, pitched a shutout against the Aggies last season at Blue Bell Park and threw six scoreless innings Tuesday before pinch hitters Hunter Coleman and Baine Schoenvogel connected for consecutive home runs in the seventh.

“Every time we come here there are about 5,000 fans … it’s tons of fun,” Mills said. “To come into a place like this against a storied program — this is something we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.”

The Bearkats (33-20) won their sixth consecutive midweek game. Sam Houston State did most of its damage in the fifth inning, in scoring five runs on the strength of Robie Rojas’ two-run homer.

ELSEWHERE

The University of Houston beat McNeese State 5-4 in Lake Charles, La., improving to 34-18. … Texas (32-19) beat visiting Incarnate Word 10-3.