COLLEGE STATION, TX — Christian Roa and Bryce Miller combined on the shutout and Jonathan Ducoff delivered four RBI as the No. 22 Texas A&M Aggies claimed the rubber match from the No. 2 Vanderbilt Commodores, 7-0, Sunday afternoon on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
Roa (2-1) and Miller stymied Vanderbilt hitters all game long, holding the Commodores to just four hits and two walks on the day. Roa registered the longest outing of his career, scattering three hits and two walks while striking out seven over 7.0 scoreless innings. Miller retired six of the seven batters he faced in the eighth and ninth innings, including three strikeouts.
One day after delivering the walk-off hit in an 8-7 victory, Jonathan Ducoff batted 2-for-4 with one double and four RBI. Ty Coleman batted 3-for-4 with two runs and one RBI and Braden Shewmake was 2-for-5 with two runs, one triple and one RBI. Cam Blake also chipped in with two hits as the Aggies pounded out 11 on the day.
After losing the first game of the series on Friday and falling behind 7-2 after seven innings on Saturday, the Maroon & White outscored the Commodores 13-0 over the last 11 innings to claim the series.
Texas A&M improved to 17-5 overall and 2-1 in SEC action. Vanderbilt dropped to 15-5 overall and 1-2 in league play.
UP NEXT
The Aggies host the Rice Owls in a 6:30 p.m. contest Tuesday at Blue Bell Park. The game will air on the SEC Network.
SCORING SUMMARY
B4 | The rally started when Cam Blake hustled out a grounder to the shortstop to beat the throw by a whisker for the infield single. After video review upheld the call, Braden Shewmake threaded a triple down the rightfield line, knocking in Blake. Mikey Hoehner pushed Shewmake across with a groundout to second. After Will Frizzell flied out to rightfield, the rally got new life with Ty Coleman legging out a grounder to third for a single. A throwing error by Vanderbilt’s third baseman on a grounder by Hunter Coleman put both runners in scoring position and Ducoff plated them with a double down the leftfield line. A&M 4, VU 0.
B7 | With one out Shewmake bounced a single up the middle. Shewmake broke to second on a pickoff throw and slide under the tag for the stolen base. A fielding error by the shortstop on a grounder by Hoehner put runners on the corners. With two outs, Ty Coleman singled through the right side to drive in Shewmake. A four-pitch walk to Hunter Coleman filled the bags with Ag and Ducoff finished off the rally, lofting a single into centerfield to knock in two more runs. A&M 7, VU 0.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
On Christian Roa…
“He had a four-pitch mix going for him from the start, and it certainly slowed down their bats down a bit. Obviously, Vanderbilt’s one through nine batters has a very special offense, and for him to be the guy, out of the weekend, to have the best start by a long shot. It says a lot about his performance.”
On what got Roa in the rotation…
“Just his maturity, he is throwing it over the plate and his numbers, as far as walks-to-strikeouts and hits-to-innings pitched, is very good. He is really good at managing the game. He is going to get you deep and get you off to a good start.”
On beating out infield singles…
“It was key. We scored out of the seven runs, five of them with two outs. I’m just proud of our toughness, we lose on Friday night, don’t play very good at all, and for us to bounce back in the second half of yesterday’s game and grab the momentum and make it stand up today. It just says a lot about our team.”
Senior INF/OF Jonathan Ducoff
On taking better at-bats as the series went on…
“Yeah, we just talked about it, in the circle at the end, about the last 15 innings of this series. We were on the ball. We were taking good swings and made things happen. We are looking forward to putting together some more of those as we go forward.”
Junior SS Braden Shewmake
On offense…
“We finally sold out to an approach and it paid off for us. If this doesn’t show everyone what we can do, then I don’t know what will. The guys did a good job sticking to that approach and we hit a lot of balls hard as a result.”
On Christian Roa’s performance…
“Christian is awesome. The kid just competes. He throws 3 or 4 different pitches for strikes every single time out. It’s fun to play behind him because you know he’s going to throw in the zone and there is going to be swings. He made unbelievable pitches all day long.”
Sophomore RHP Christian Roa
On his performance…
“It feels great to get out there and get a win for the team. We played great today, especially since we punched back after Friday night’s loss.”
On his pitches…
“The change was there and I was attacking the zone which made them off balance for my off-speed stuff, which turned out pretty good.”
