Staff and Wire Report
OKLAHOMA CITY -- It was supposed to be a fresh start for the Texas A&M baseball team, but Wednesday's 5-2 loss to the Missouri Tigers to open the Big 12 tournament looked painfully familiar.
The Aggies were 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position, made three errors and starter Clayton Ehlert (5-1) lasted only three innings. Unearned runs and a lack of clutch hitting were reasons A&M lost five of its last six Big 12 games.
A&M has been outscored 26-12 in losing its last four games, and the Aggies haven't led in the last 33 innings.
"It comes down to guys stepping up and getting it done," A&M head coach Rob Childress said, "and we haven't done that the last four games. We're not asking our guys to do anything more than they can do. We've got a pretty good lineup and they've got to go out there and play up to their potential. I'm looking forward to getting back out on the field. I wish we played tomorrow."
A&M (34-22) is off Thursday and will play Oklahoma at 7:30 p.m. Friday at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark. The Aggies will conclude pool play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Texas Tech.
A&M will need to get hot and have someone beat Missouri to have a chance to play in Sunday's title game against the winner of the other bracket that includes Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State and Texas.
"Our plan is to win this tournament," Childress said. "We're going to come out and get after Oklahoma and give them everything we got, hopefully come out on the winning end and then [play] Texas Tech, and let the cards fall where they may. But we came here to win this tournament, and we're not done yet. I can tell you that."
Sixth-seeded A&M couldn't solve Missouri ace right-hander Kyle Gibson, who allowed three hits and struck out seven in six shutout innings as the third-seeded Tigers cruised to a 5-0 lead before 5,047 fans.
Gibson (10-3) fanned 16 in a complete-game 3-2 victory over the Aggies on March 20 that helped get the Tigers rolling.
"Gibson wasn't overpowering the way he was last time," Childress said. "But what he did was pitch. He threw strikes, expanded down in the zone, threw three pitches for a strike -- he did a great job. A lot of guys can go out and compete and do well when they have their 'A' stuff. Great pitchers find a way to get it done when they have their 'B' stuff and aren't 100 percent. Kyle Gibson definitely is a great one."
Gibson left after throwing 99 pitches. Missouri head coach Tim Jamieson said earlier this week that he didn't want to tax Gibson with the NCAA regionals upcoming.
Ian Berger, Kelly Pick and Phil McCormick kept the shutout for Missouri through eight innings, but the Aggies scored two runs off Brad Buehler in the ninth.
A&M's Kevin Gonzalez walked with one out, and Adam Smith doubled. Missouri second baseman Austin Holt misplayed David Alleman's grounder to make it 5-1. A wild pitch during a walk to Brodie Greene made it 5-2 and brought the potential game-tying run to the plate. But Jamieson brought in Nick Tepesch who induced game-ending groundouts from Brooks Raley and Luke Anders. It was Tepesch's first save of the season.
"I'm just happy we came away with a win," Jamieson said. "It was kind of a strange-feeling game. I thought we did some things real well offensively early."
A&M didn't.
A&M had two runners on and one out in the fifth, but Greene struck out and Raley grounded out. Anders walked and Kyle Colligan singled to start the sixth, but Joe Patterson grounded into a double play, one of three the Tigers made.
The Aggies loaded the bases in the eighth. Raley walked, and Anders and Colligan singled. But Patterson grounded into another double play.
"Obviously they were good pitches, because the balls weren't hit really hard, and they took big hops," Jamieson said of the double plays. "Our infielders did a good job finishing the plays off. They came at the right time."
Nothing seemed to come at the right time for A&M, which was held to six hits, five of them singles.
"You can't do anything about what's happened," Colligan said. "You have to get better and try to work out what you're not doing right and keep plugging away. It can only get better. You can't be negative. At this point in time, we have a limited time together, and we have to do what we need to do in order to succeed, and that's not be negative. We have to get it done, plain and simple. We have to step up, myself included."
Missouri also had only six hits, but four were for extra bases as the Tigers won for the 12th time in 14 games.
Ryan Lollis' double helped Missouri to a 1-0 lead in the first. The Tigers made it 2-0 on Greg Folgia's sacrifice fly scoring Lollis who tripled.
Steve Gray added a two-run home run in the fourth.
*
NOTES -- A&M is 16-19 in the Big 12 tournament and 14-13 at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark. ... A&M's Joe Patterson had a 10-game hitting streak stopped. ... Missouri's Kyle Mach has a 16-game hitting streak.
A&M BASEBALL
Big 12 tournament, Oklahoma City
Wednesday's score: Missouri 5, A&M 2. Records: Missouri 33-23; A&M 34-22.
Other scores: Kansas State 5, Kansas 4; Baylor 14, Texas 9; Texas Tech x, Oklahoma x
Thursday's games: Texas vs. Kansas, 3 p.m.; Kansas State vs. Baylor, 7:30 p.m.
Friday's games: Missouri vs. Texas Tech, 3 p.m.; A&M vs. Oklahoma, 7:30 p.m. (WTAW, 1620 AM).
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Posted by: Real Baseball Intelligence On: 5/21/2009
Comment Title: MLB Draft
Real Baseball Intelligence (RBI), a leading resource in the evaluation of amateur baseball talent and draft coverage, offers its 2009 Baseball Draft Guide. The Guide includes RBI's Top 400 draft prospects (including Kyle Gibson), scouting reports of the top ten players at each position, a mock draft and more. It is available at withthefirstpick.net/guide
Posted by: miller58 On: 5/21/2009
Comment Title: SHERMAN 1/TURGEON 1 RECRUITING/LOSING FLU PANDAMIC SPREADING TO CHILDRESS NOW ?
My personal opinions:_____This Recruiting1/Losing 1 flu strain appears to be very contagious among A&M coaches, it seems?_____miller58
