Watching Texas Tech let a game slip away with shoddy defense, the Aggies might have been thinking, "been there, hope we're done with that."
Texas A&M's defensive struggles were overshadowed Friday night, when three errors by the Red Raiders wound up in the spotlight of a 6-3 Aggie victory at Olsen Field.
The 23rd-ranked Aggies (14-3) entered the game with the worst fielding percentage in the conference. A&M made a couple of errors, both by pitcher Barret Loux, but neither miscue resulted in runs.
Tech (8-11) allowed four unearned runs with the sort of infield defense that caused A&M coaches to make major lineup changes for their Big 12 Conference opener against Tech.
"We took advantage of some mistakes they made," A&M coach Rob Childress said. "We've had teams take advantage of the mistakes that we made, and it was nice for us to do that."
The Red Raiders led 2-0 just two batters into the game, but it took less than two innings for Tech to give those runs back.
Tech's first-time starting pitcher John Neely had a chance to escape the second inning with a 2-1 lead, but a two-out throwing error by shortstop Joey Kenworthy allowed Brodie Greene to bat with the bases loaded. Greene delivered a single to left field that drove in two runs and put A&M ahead to stay.
"That's kind of how baseball works: It punishes you if you don't take care of your business," Tech coach Dan Spencer said.
Greene switched to shortstop after starting the first 16 games in center field. Caleb Shofner moved to third base after starting every game at first base. With Loux and reliever John Stilson striking out 15 batters, Greene and Shofner only dealt with one grounder apiece, handling the routine chances easily.
"Obviously it helped that Barret and John got 15 strikeouts, but as the weekend goes along they'll put more balls in play for us," Greene said. "With the four-run lead and Barret and [Stilson] blowing through innings, it kept us loose and free of consequence."
Greene and Shofner had a pleasant night to get acclimated to their new positions. Anticipated cold weather could make conditions much worse for the second game of the series, which has been pushed back to 6:35 p.m. Saturday.
The weather will be comfortable if the forecast proves as misleading as the way Tech started the series. Loux brought a 16-inning scoreless streak into the game, but Jamodrick McGruder greeted him with a leadoff single and Kenworthy stunned the crowd of 4,006 by belting a home run two pitches later.
"If Joey Kenworthy could hit against Texas A&M every weekend, no doubt he'd be an All-American," Childress said. "The best credit I can give him is it seems like he's been at Texas Tech for seven years."
Kenworthy's spark didn't spread, however. Loux (3-1) limited the Raiders to two hits and no runs over the next five innings, allowing Stilson to finish up for his third save.
Tech threatened in the second and sixth thanks to Loux's errors, but the Raiders were unsuccessful on their first six chances with runners in scoring position.
"Barret settled in and had a great performance," Childress said. "After two [innings] he was at 48 pitches, and it looked like it was going to be an early night for him. He got himself going and was very, very good."
The Aggies scored in the third on a two-out RBI single by Joaquin Hinojosa. An error led to a run in the sixth, when pinch hitter Brett Parsons capitalized with an RBI double. A&M got another unearned run in the seventh, as Shofner got a good jump on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error by the catcher.
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