By ROBERT CESSNA
OMAHA, Neb. -- Texas A&M couldn't have imagined a better return to the College World Series than scoring four runs in the first inning. Those runs, though, were all unearned. The Aggies never earned one on their own as South Carolina battled back for a 5-4 victory on Scott Wingo's walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth.
The more than thousand Aggies who had been standing cheering in the first inning quietly filed out of TD Ameritrade Park after Wingo's bases-loaded shot bounced off the right-field wall. Their heartache at the majestic new home of the CWS wasn't any easier to take than it had been at legendary Rosenblatt Stadium, where A&M had been only 2-8. Heck, it might have been tougher to take.
A&M's stout pitching staff had never allowed more than three runs in any of its five NCAA tournament victories to reach Omaha. Yet, this time, the Aggies couldn't even make it out of the first inning with a 4-0 lead.
Third-team All-America pitcher Ross Stripling walked leadoff hitter Evan Marzilli. Walks with leads drive coaches and fans crazy. Marzilli tentatively had been batting ninth in the lineup until South Carolina coach Ray Tanner moved Marzilli up and dropped Jackie Bradley Jr., who returned after missing two months.
Stripling walked Marzilli in five pitches. What's the worst Marzilli would do? Homer? He's hit only three and had struck out 56 times in 201 at-bats, walking only 22 times. You want a guy like that swinging.
But it's called nerves. That was only Stripling's 18th walk in 117 2/3 innings. He also balked in a run -- his first balk of the season. And he wasn't alone when it came to nerves. An error by second baseman Andrew Collazo led to a couple of unearned runs.
"It wasn't just the guys on the mound that were a little bit nervous or anxious starting that game," A&M head coach Rob Childress said.
But the bottom line is A&M's lead was gone just a quick as it had been built. A&M was still in good shape in a tie game with Stripling, who bounced back to give the Aggies a great performance. He gutted out 114 pitches, striking out six and walking, you guessed it, only that one batter.
His bullpen, though, had those same jitters, as Kyle Martin and Nick Fleece failed to get an out. Missing your spots pitching is no way to beat a squad that claimed the CWS title last year by winning six straight games.
South Carolina senior Robert Beary greeted Martin by ripping a double off the right-field fence to open the ninth inning. Bradley, a first-round pick of the Boston Red Sox, lined a single to left field to welcome Fleece, and senior Wingo capped his first 4-for-4 game in grand fashion. The Gamecocks had claimed the 2010 title in a 2-1 walk-off victory over UCLA.
A&M didn't even get an out in the ninth inning.
It would be easy to blame the loss on pitching, but the hitters never showed up except for Brandon Wood's three-run triple and Matt Juengel's hard work that paid off in three walks.
Big 12 player of the year Tyler Naquin and Krey Bratsen, the team's top hitters and table setters, were a combined 1 for 7 with a trio of strikeouts.
Jacob House, who played in the CWS in 2009 while at Arkansas, added an RBI single, but other than that, A&M batters didn't get much air time on ESPN except for 10 strikeouts. A&M had only four hits, its lowest total since April 19 in a 4-2 loss to Texas Christian.
No hitting and no help from the bullpen meant the Aggies lost a four-run lead for only the second time in the last 78 games.
The last time was on April 29 when Missouri scored seven runs in the bottom of the seventh to wipe out a 6-1 A&M lead en route to a walk-off 10-9 victory. A&M also lost three of its next five before getting on a roll that allowed it to make its first trip to Omaha since 1999.
A&M's hitters have to respond Tuesday against California or it might not matter how good an effort the Aggies get from Michael Wacha, the second half of A&M's dominant 1-2 right-handed pitching duo. And it sure would be a shame for this CWS to end with two straight losses after such a promising start.
* Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.
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