Ejection helps A&M with pitcher selection
Having to sit out four games means Lacy is well-rested for first round against Florida
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M pitcher Asa Lacy turns 20 on June 2, and he glanced back to half his life ago to recall the last time he was ejected from a game.
“Maybe when I was 10 years old,” Lacy said with a half-smile. “I didn’t know where the ball was going, so I occasionally hit too many guys.”
Fast forward a decade, and Lacy was tossed by a SEC umpire on May 11 for arguing balls and strikes at Alabama. The Aggies’ co-ace sat out the next four games under league rules, including a key series against Arkansas at Blue Bell Park this past weekend.
“That was on me, I apologized to my team for missing Arkansas,” he said. “They picked me up, we had a great weekend, and we’re looking forward to carrying that momentum.”
Lacy’s surprising ejection — he said he was given no warning prior — was punctuated by a silver lining for the Aggies: He’s their starter in the opening game of the SEC tournament, a single-elimination contest that begins at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Hoover, Ala., against 11th-seeded Florida.
“Asa is going to be fresh,” said shortstop Braden Shewmake, sixth-seeded A&M’s leading hitter. “It’s going to be fun watching him throw on a couple of extra days rest.”
Tuesday’s victor becomes a part of a double-elimination tournament starting Wednesday. Despite Lacy’s absence last weekend, the No. 17 Aggies (36-19-1) won two of three from the fourthranked Razorbacks, perhaps helping A&M snag one of the 16 regional sites for the NCAA Tournament.
The Aggies also know a solid showing in Hoover could lock down a host site.
“You can always help yourself by playing well,” A&M coach Rob Childress said. “The (NCAA selection) committee is not going to make a decision until the end of this week as far as the host sites. We don’t want to leave any room for doubt.”
The Gators (33-23), who won their lone national title two years ago, are 13-17 in SEC play.
“We’re trying to not look forward to see who we have after Florida,” Shewmake said of the Gators still being a dangerous opening-round foe.
That’s where Lacy, a hardthrowing lefthander, comes in. The former Kerrville Tivy High standout is the first A&M sophomore to notch at least 100 strikeouts in a season since Michael Wacha in 2011. Wacha has been in the big leagues with St. Louis since 2013.
Lacy (7-4, 2.13 ERA) has 115 strikeouts over 76 innings and 13 starts, and is second in the league in strikeouts per nine innings (13.62). On Monday, he was named to the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, which will compete in North Carolina, Taiwan and Japan this summer.
Lacy is not eligible for the amateur draft until next year. The Cleveland Indians selected him in the 31st round two years ago out of Tivy High, but he took up Childress on a scholarship offer.
“He’s an incredibly mature young man,” Childress said of Lacy, who also cuts an imposing figure on the mound at 6-4 and 215 pounds. “He does everything the right way — he prepares the right way and leads the right way. I know he felt bad about that (ejection) situation that got away from him, (but) he’s handled that as maturely as you’d expect him to.”
Between Lacy and fellow ace John Doxakis and a loaded bullpen, the Aggies feature the SEC’s top pitching staff with a 3.07 ERA. They’ve struggled offensively much of the season but scored 15 runs on 27 hits in three games against Arkansas.
“Our pitching has been awesome all year long, we’ve struck out 600 guys — that’s a lot,” Shewmake said. “We’re starting to swing the bats better and getting more confident at the plate. People are figuring some little things out.”
The Aggies are tied with fellow SEC West foe Mississippi State for the national lead with 602 strikeouts, and Lacy easily leads the team in that category, in accounting for nearly 20 percent of A&M’s strikeouts.
“Ultimately, we’d like to make this an easy decision for the committee,” Lacy said of the chance of hosting a regional. “For that to happen, we need to win a couple of games in Hoover. And I know we’d love to win the whole thing.”