Eagle Staff Report
Slick fielding, kind of: Texas A&M finished the season with the second-highest fielding percentage in school history (.9753). The school record is .9754, set in 2005.
But the Aggies made three errors in the CWS that led to six unearned runs. Second baseman Andrew Collazo had a throwing error in the first inning of the 5-4 loss to South Carolina that made four runs unearned. Then in Tuesday's 7-3 loss to Cal, third baseman Adam Smith had a two-base throwing error and center fielder Krey Bratsen had an error during Cal's three-run fifth that gave Cal the lead for good. Then in the sixth inning, Cal was able to score a run on a 200-foot fly ball to right field. A&M's Tyler Naquin, who had seven assists and has one of the best arms in the game, threw the ball well over the head of catcher Kevin Gonzalez. Since the runner had tagged and went -- most thought unwisely -- Naquin wasn't charged with an error because you can't assume he was going to throw the runner out, though most thought he would.
"It's one of the few times I haven't seen him be right on the money with the throw," A&M head coach Rob Childress said. "He is that accurate. You give him the ball seven more times in that same spot, and I guarantee you he's going to throw him out."
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Not used to great facilities: Cal's home stadium is 2,500-seat Evans Diamond. The Bears averaged 558 fans per game this season at home with a season-ending crowd of 1,358 for Stanford, the biggest of the year. Cal had only one other crowd over a grand -- 1,005 for Arizona State. The Bears had seven crowds of less than 200. Evans Diamond wasn't good enough for the Bears to host Dallas Baptist in the super regionals, thus the series was played at Santa Clara.
Tuesday's crowd was 18,141. Cal's home attendance for the entire season was 13,392.
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Wacha hits a wall: A&M starting pitcher Michael Wacha allowed seven runs in 6 2/3 innings. Wacha had allowed just seven runs in his previous five starts. He had been 2-0 in the NCAA tournament with an 0.89 earned run average in three games, including elimination-game victories over Arizona and Florida State. It was only the fourth time in 19 starts he had allowed five or more runs.
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A&M records: Wacha struck out five, bringing his season total to 123. That tied him for eighth on the A&M single-season charts with Chance Caple (1999).
Wacha became the youngest Aggie pitcher to start a CWS game since 1993, when Trey Moore (also a sophomore) pitched against LSU.
Senior reliever Nick Fleece extended his school record appearances to 36 with a scoreless ninth.
Naquin had a single, which was his 104th of the season. It is the fourth-highest total in school history and three shy of the school record (107, Jason Tyner, 1998). His 104 hits lead the nation.
Kevin Gonzalez tied a career high with three hits, one shy of the school CWS record set by Hollis Baker against Utah in 1951. It was Gonzalez's 11th multihit game of the season and 52nd of his career.
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Bad company: Big 12 regular season co-champs A&M and Texas were the first teams eliminated from the CWS. The last time two teams from the same state each lost two straight games to start the CWS came in 2006 when Georgia and Georgia Tech lost. The last time that two teams from the same conference were the first teams eliminated came in 2004 when it was the SEC's Arkansas and Georgia.
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Streaks: Cal snapped a six-game losing streak at the CWS. The Bears last victory was June 12, 1980 against Miami (Fla.). A&M has lost six straight CWS games -- 1993 against LSU (13-8) and Long Beach State (6-2); 1999 against Florida State (7-3) and Cal State Fullerton (4-2); and this year against South Carolina (5-4) and Cal (7-3).
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A more few records: A&M is 2-10 at the CWS. Cal is 11-7. Cal is 43-24 all-time in the NCAA tournament, including 7-2 in 2011. ... Cal is now 5-0 in the NCAA tournament elimination games this season, including 3-0 against Big 12 teams. Cal beat Baylor twice to win the Houston Regional.
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Fantastic freshman: Cal freshman left-handed pitcher Kyle Porter went six innings in only his fourth start. He allowed three runs on seven hits. Porter (6-0) filled in for injured sophomore left-hander Erik Johnson (biceps) who was drafted in the second round by the Chicago White Sox.
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Super save: Cal junior right-hander Matt Flemer went a season-high three innings for his sixth save of the season. The 19th-round choice of the Kansas City Royals also fanned a season-high five Aggies.
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In the clutch: Cal, which was hitting .288 as a team, was 6-for-14 with runners on base, including 5-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Against Virginia in the CWS opener, the Bears were 1-for-19 with runners on base, including 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
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Hot batters: Cal second baseman Derek Campbell went 2-for-4 with two RBIs against A&M and is hitting .438 (7-for-16) during the NCAA tournament. Campbell and Anthony
Renda combined to go 4-for-7 with three runs batted in after going hitless in seven at-bats against Virginia.
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He showed why: Cal head coach David Esquer was named national coach of the year on Tuesday by the National College Baseball Writers Association. Esquer also played in the CWS He was a shortstop at Stanford, which won the title in 1987. He earned all-tournament honors that year.
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Solid pitching: A&M's team earned run average of 2.90 this season is the third-best total in school history and the school's best in 21 years (2.80 in 1990 and 2.83 in
1979). The ERA ranks 15th nationally. A&M pitchers also tossed a school-record 626.2 innings.
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For the record: Aggie pitchers fanned eight Cal batters, matching the school's CWS single-game record set against Kansas in 1993.
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Three is company: A&M's Adam Smith hit his seventh of the season, tying him with Matt Juengel for the team lead. Smith hit three homers in the NCAA tournament.
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Good ending: Bratsen, who played at Bryan High, posted his 27th multihit game of the season, going 2-for-5.
-- ROBERT CESSNA
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