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Aggies Bulldozer the Bobcats, 14-1

Posted at 11:02 AM, Apr 20, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-20 12:02:13-04

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M Aggies cruised to a 14-1 win over the Texas State Bobcats Tuesday night on Blue Bell Park at Olsen Field. The win was the eighth in a row for Texas A&M (30-7).

The Aggie bats continued where they left off in Starkville piling 14 runs on the Bobcats’ pitching. The double-digit output was the seventh in a row for A&M. The mark tied a school record set in 1985. Walker Pennington led the show with a multi-homer game hitting a solo shot in the third and a three-run job in the eighth.

Tyler Ivey got the call as the starter on the mound. He worked two innings giving up one run. He was relieved by Stephen Kolek (2-0) who toed the rubber for the next three innings and earned the win

It all happened so quickly for the Aggie offense against Texas State starter Jonathan Hennigan (2-2). JB Moss and Nick Banks reached base and came home on a Hunter Melton gapper. It marked the 15th time Moss has scored in the first inning. Barash sent the third run home with an RBI groundout.

Texas State (21-17) answered back but not with quite the same gusto scoring one in the second off Ivey.

The Maroon and White offense kept it coming all night long, putting up two more in the second and another run in the third. The Aggies tagged the Texas State pen for five-run sixth highlighted by a Joel Davis bases-clearing triple. The rocketed ball came within inches of clearing the center field wall. It was the seventh straight game A&M has logged an inning with four or more runs. The Pennington blast in the eighth brought the Aggies to their final 14 total.

The Aggie bullpen posted zeros for the rest of the game bringing out a total of six relievers from the pen. Following Kolek, Turner Larkins, Ty Schlottmann, Corbin Martin, Kaylor Chafin and Cason Sherrod all got their time on the mound.

Banks, fresh off SEC Player of the Week honors, reached base in 3-of-4 plate appearances. Austin Homan and Moss also found their way aboard on three separate occasions. When all was said and done, six different Aggies scored twice in the game.

With another win at Olsen Field, the Aggies have won 41 non-conference regular season games in a row in College Station.

Texas A&M returns to action Friday when they try to maintain their top standing in the SEC West when they take on Alabama in College Station.  

TEXSAS A&M QUOTES

TEXAS A&M JUNIOR NICK BANKS

On why the offense is rolling…

“We really have focused on our approach. We’ve been working so hard at it lately. We kind of got away from it in the four game span we were losing. Then Coach really helped us to get back into how we really play as a team and it is showing.”

On his personal batting average improvement...

“Yea, Coach Bolt has really worked hard with me and just trying to change a little, but not too much. Just trying to make some minor movements with my hands to get them in the right place for me to be ready to hit. I was having problems with that earlier in the year and he saw it, pointed it out to me, and we have been working on that. Ever since then everything has been clicking. ”

TEXAS A&M JUNIOR WALKER PENNINGTON

On his two home runs...

“We have one of the deepest offenses in the country no doubt. Unfortunately I started over [Nick] Choruby tonight, so we had one .200-batting average in there. We have such a complete offense. [Nick] Choruby is on the bench giving me confidence, which is nice. He comes in and gets a knock so it just shows how deep we are and we all have so much confidence. We all rely on each so it’s nice where we are and hopefully we can keep it rolling.”

On overwhelming pitchers …

“We saw some good pitchers last weekend against Mississippi State. You see JB [Moss], [Nick] Banks and Boomer [White], they always lead off the game so well. It kind of gives us all confidence. We kind of think they aren’t as good as they are just because they make it look so easy. The top line up they get to the bottom line, luckily we have been able to provide runs lately from the bottom. It’s just nice to see everyone getting confident and everyone’s knocking people in, so it’s really fun.”

TEXAS A&M SENIOR HUNTER MELTON

On another win with 10+ runs…

“It’s something special, it just shows the depth we have in our offense, the pitchers allowing us to do this. I feel like everyone is putting in work one through, I think 14 hitters we had, everyone matters and it shows when we put up 10 or more runs it shows how many people are sold out to one another and for our team.”

On getting hits with two outs…

“If something goes bad that we get two quick outs, we just try to tell ourselves that we are going to do something with two outs. Coach always says we are a two out nightmare and we just try to pounce on that whenever. If someone can get it going with two outs, I mean we only get three outs to work with. When we get three quick outs, we just try to stay over the baseball as much as we can to try and get something started.”