Commodores bust up Aggies’ SEC opener
COLLEGE STATION — A busted water pipe shut down restrooms and concessions in Blue Bell Park before SEC action ever cranked up on Friday night.
A couple of hours later, things really flowed downhill for Texas A&M.
Top-ranked Vanderbilt defeated the Aggies 7-4 before a legscrossed, fidgety crowd suddenly relying on hauled in port-o-potties on a chilly Friday night in the teams’ league opener.
“We’re a better team than what we’ve shown so far,” A&M catcher Mikey Hoehner said of a message from coach Rob Childress during an in-game huddle. “Every guy in the clubhouse agrees with that. We have so much potential — we just have to come out here and show it.”
A&M starter John Doxakis (3-2) allowed two runs on six hits over five innings.
Childress elected to pull Doxakis after 96 pitches, and not long after the game started sliding south for the Aggies.
Vanderbilt outhit A&M 12-5, the Aggies finished 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position, and each team had two errors in a fairly sloppy league opener.
“As bad as we played we still had our opportunities,” Childress said. “Give Vanderbilt credit — we made a run at them and they came right back … they played a lot better than we did certainly.”
The Aggies (15-5, 0-1 SEC) and Doxakis escaped a couple of jams in the middle innings. The Commodores (15-3, 1-0) loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth before Doxakis struck out the next two batters.
Doxakis then uncorked a wild pitch that scored a run and lifted Vanderbilt to a 2-1 lead. Vanderbilt’s Austin Martin, who entered the weekend hitting a league-best .481, grounded out to third base to end the inning.
Vanderbilt finally broke through with three runs in the sixth thanks in part to A&M outfielders Allonte Wingate and Ty Condel misplaying fly balls and second baseman Bryce Blaum recording a throwing error to first. The Aggies got a break to end the inning when Martin tried stealing home and was thrown out.
Commodores starter Drake Fellows (4-0) struggled with his control throughout but still lasted 52⁄3 innings in allowing two runs on three hits and six walks.
“I feel like we’ve got a very good offensive club, we just haven’t played to our potential this year,” Childress said.
A&M was coming off a 5-4 setback at Dallas Baptist on Tuesday and has lost consecutive games for the first time this season.
The series continues at 2 p.m. Saturday and concludes with Sunday’s 1 p.m. series finale. The Aggies play host to Rice on Tuesday night.
The Aggies’ season highlight to date is winning all three games against Baylor, TCU and Houston in the Shriners Classic at Minute Maid Park to start this month.
Texas A&M is trying to return to the College World Series for the third time in Childress’s 14 seasons, although they’re still angling to win a game in Omaha, Neb., under his watch.