FORT WORTH -- The Texas A&M baseball team will need as big a comeback as it flirted with Friday to keep playing and end a late season slide.
The Aggies spotted Oregon State an eight-run lead through six innings before scoring four in the seventh and three in the ninth. Still, it wasn't enough to overcome a horrid start as Oregon State held on for a 9-8 victory in the opening game of the NCAA Fort Worth Regional at Lupton Stadium before 2,822 fans.
If the 25th-ranked Aggies (36-23) are to advance to a Super Regional for a third straight season, they will have to take the long road and win their next four games, starting with an elimination game against Wright State at 2 p.m. Saturday.
A&M then would have to win two games Sunday and another Monday to advance. One loss anywhere along the way would knock the preseason No. 1 Aggies out of the postseason.
They almost avoided the predicament.
Unranked Oregon State led 9-1 after a two-run sixth, but A&M cut it to 9-5 in the seventh. Then in the ninth, A&M's Caleb Shofner had the Beavers fretting when he lifted a two-out, 2-0 pitch from right-hander Kevin Rhoderick just over the 375-foot sign in right-center field for a three-run homer that cut OSU's lead to one.
"We are aware of it now," Oregon State coach Pat Casey said of A&M's ability to rally. "I just figured the way things were going, we had to go to our closer with a four-run lead, and [Shofner] runs one out of the house on him."
Shofner drove in Joe Patterson and Kevin Gonzalez, who had both singled. It was Shofner's sixth homer of the season but only the second extra-base hit allowed by Rhoderick in the sophomore's collegiate career, which covers 48 innings.
Rhoderick bounced back to strike out Adam Smith to end the game.
"We lost a little bit of the momentum I guess with the big lead, and then didn't do things on the mound we needed to do to keep those leads," Casey said. "We talked about not worrying about the things we didn't do well but the fact that we won, and they are tough to win, especially in the big ol' state of Texas against Texas A&M."
The Aggies were unable to get a fix on freshman starter Sam Gaviglio (10-1). But after the right-hander left after tiring in the 90-plus degree heat and midday sun, the Aggies pounced on the Beavers' bullpen.
A&M inched back by batting around in the seventh. Shofner and Smith had bloop singles to get things started against reliever Greg Peavey. Brodie Greene then drove a ball through the left side to load the bases. OSU went to reliever Josh Osich, and Brooks Raley greeted him with a sacrifice fly to center. Osich then walked Luke Anders and Kyle Colligan to force in a run. Osich struck out Patterson, but OSU brought in Mark Grbavac, who gave up a two-run single to Gonzalez.
Overall, OSU used seven pitchers, including six over the final 3 1/3 innings.
"I wish we didn't have to go so deep into our pen today, but you have to find a way to win," Casey said. "It was the result we were getting from the guys we ran out there."
The only move Casey said he made for matchups was bringing in left-hander Kraig Sitton, who retired left-handed hitting Raley to end the eighth, stranding two runners.
The top A&M reliever was junior right-hander Shane Minks, who threw 2 2/3 innings of one-hit ball.
"He did an incredible job, by far and away the best he's thrown for us this year," A&M head coach Rob Childress said. "He's been thrown in some big spots, but today was definitely a big one for him to give us a stop against an offense that was definitely rolling downhill the first six innings."
"He did an incredible job, by far and away the best he's thrown for us this year," A&M head coach Rob Childress said. "He's been thrown in some big spots, but today was definitely a big one for him to give us a stop against an offense that was definitely rolling downhill the first six innings."
A&M was forced to play catch-up because Raley struggled for the fourth straight start.
The sophomore escaped the first inning, something Raley was unable to do in his last outing when he gave up seven runs to Oklahoma in the Big 12 tournament. The lefty walked the bases loaded but survived thanks to two easy ground balls and a strikeout, needing 28 pitches to do it.
The Beavers nicked Raley for four runs in the second -- three were unearned. Carter Bell singled to left, then advanced to third when the throw by first baseman Anders to second base on Koa Kahalehoe's sacrifice bunt was errant.
John Tommasini hit a long fly ball to left-center for a two-run triple.
"When they sacrifice bunt, you've got to take outs and go into damage control, and we don't get an out at second base when we try to get a lead runner and it turns into a big inning for them," Childress said. "We want to make aggressive mistakes obviously, but if [Anders] throws a strike, he probably does get him out."
Raley settled down and retired OSU's top two hitters, Michael Miller and Joey Wong, but couldn't escape more trouble. The heart of the Beavers' lineup -- Ryan Ortiz, Adalberto Santos and Stefen Romero -- each singled sharply to give OSU a 4-0 lead.
"I just wasn't pounding the zone, and if you are not going to pound the zone against good teams like Oregon State, you are not going to win," Raley said. "A couple of runs weren't earned but it's my job to get out of the inning and I didn't do it. I just didn't do my part."
The one earned run made it 22 in the last four starts for Raley (7-3) when he had only given up 17 heading into the Texas game on May 8.
Childress counted on reliever Alex Wilson to keep it close.
Wilson was greeted by back-to-back singles, but with runners on second and third he induced Miller and Wong to ground out to Anders to end the threat.
Wilson wasn't as fortunate in the fourth, walking a pair of batters who scored on Bell's double that caught the chalk on the right-field line. Wilson thought he had ended the inning with a strike out of Wallace, who walked just head of Bell's third straight clutch hit.
"Their [Nos.] 7, 8 and 9 hole hitters went 7 for 15, got big hits when they needed to and really stepped up for them today," Childress said.
Of the three, only Bell entered with an average above .250 and he had less than 50 at-bats.
Colligan interrupted the Beavers' fun in the fourth with a towering solo homer that just cleared the fence in left. It was the senior's team-leading 15th home run.
The Beavers got to Wilson for two more in the sixth. Singles by Ortiz and Romero sandwiched by another walk to Wallace loaded the bases.
Wilson struck out Bell, but Kahalehoe's two-out single gave the Beavers a 9-1 lead.
Oregon State, the third-place finisher in the Pac-10, managed to hold and will play Mountain West champ TCU at 7 p.m. Saturday. TCU advanced with a 6-3 victory over Wright State.
*
NOTES -- A&M freshman Ross Hales (6-2, 3.98 ERA) will start Saturday against Wright State. ... Five of OSU's nine RBIs came from Kahalehoe and Bell, neither of whom had reached double figures in that category before Saturday. ... The only OSU starter not to get a hit was Joey Wong, who was the only player in the every day lineup that played a major role in the Beavers' national championship in 2007. ... Attendance was 2,822 for a game that included 17 runs, 21 runners left on base and 11 pitchers and lasted 3 hours, 32 minutes.
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Posted by: aGgIes On: 6/8/2009
Comment Title: CWS maybe next year or a year later or maybe 5 years from now
Texas made it to the CWS again. Wish we made it. But anyway, football is here and I have a feeling that the aggies are going to be the big12 south champ then the undisputed national champion! Like our Golf
Posted by: Pablo On: 5/30/2009
Comment Title: Chin up Ladies!
A&M lives to fight another day!
Posted by: On: 5/30/2009
Comment Title: 3rd poster is a kool aid bong drinking idiot
I was the second poster, grew up on lawyer street in cs and grad from consol and a@m. If you want to call me a loser for telling the truth, go for it. However, I think you are loser for turning your head the other way why the rest of the BIG 12 is laughing! GO back to your trailer on krenek tap road and beat your wife!
Posted by: On: 5/30/2009
Comment Title: the third post
most of us are in line with the first two posts. if you want to rah-rah in the face of common sense, such as the third poster, go back to middle school.
Posted by: On: 5/30/2009
Comment Title:
Why don't both you losers just stay at home on your couches? We sure don't need you at games and we sure don't need you as fans. miller is not an aggie, was born in '58 & went to baylor - ignore him.
Posted by: On: 5/30/2009
Comment Title:
Forget about recruits miller (same tired story). These kids just did not show up to play, like they have done all year long. The bottom of their lineup is horrible (got lucky yesterday) and they have a CATCHER playing leftfield that could not throw farther than a little leaguer to homeplate. They should have put raley in left after he decided he could not pitch. That pre-season #1 ranking was the worst thing that could of happened because they walk on the field and expect the other team to lay down. When in fact they are the ones that lay down. The jury is still out on childress. He was supposed to be a pitchers coach and his staff sucks. Also, since johnson's kids have graduated, childress has not done squat! Hey, look on the birght side, $bill has the # 1 golf team, may be we can start a chess team next year too! New slogan: TAMU, building champions in sports that no one cares about!
Posted by: miller58 On: 5/30/2009
Comment Title: THE COMMON THREAD IS HIGHER RANKED PLAYERS COACHED WAY DOWN TO FINISH LOWER?
My personal opnions:_____BASEBALL; the team was ranked #1 pre-season and coached down to a bottom half finish?_____Recruiting is by comparison, terrible!_____BASKETBALL; the team was picked for a higher finish, but coached down to a bottom half finish?_____Recruiting is way terrible, compared to tu, baylor, etc.?_____FOOTBALL; picked pre-season to win 7 to 11 games based on talent, but coached down to a last place 4-8 finish?_____Recruiting just the worst and most terrible ever remembered?_____Why do some Ag blogs continue to allow daily Aggie Spin Machine posts, that blatantly lie about the terrible coaching; and even worse recruiting, by comparison to a vast majority of Big 12 teams and our neightbors, huh??????????_____Is continuing to post these blatant lies, the price these blogs must pay to just have access to A&M coaches?_____And then do some blogs then censor, or ban the real honest truth?_____miller58
