Texas A&M baseball coach Rob Childress tried to heap praise on Washington State's hitters, a difficult task with the Cougars buried under a heap of Ks.
Four A&M pitchers combined to strike out 18 batters as the Aggies rallied to beat Washington State 4-3 before 2,796 on a cool Friday night at Olsen Field.
It was the most strikeouts in a game for A&M since 2001 against Texas-Pan American. The last time the Aggies had more was 1993 when Jeff Granger set the school record with 21 against Lubbock Christian.
"Watching their batting practice and approach, they have a very good lineup," Childress said. "We're going to have our hands full the rest of the weekend."
Every Aggie pitcher supplied at least one strikeout. The most came from starter Barret Loux and the biggest were courtesy of closer John Stilson. Loux fanned 11, one shy of the career high he established in his previous outing, but the junior right-hander was in danger of taking a hard-luck loss after A&M presented the Cougars with two unearned runs in the sixth inning.
Relievers Shane Minks, Estevan Uriegas and Stilson held WSU at two runs long enough for the Aggie hitters time to solve Cougar starter Chad Arnold. A&M (12-2) halved the deficit in the bottom of the sixth on a walk and a two-out RBI double by cleanup hitter Joe Patterson.
A&M's Kenny Jackson started the seventh with a single. No. 7 batter Kevin Gonzalez fell behind in the count 0-2 and flinched as he took a breaking pitch off the outside corner. On the next offering, Gonzalez crushed a high fastball to left for a home run that made it 3-2.
"[Arnold] threw great all the way until the sixth inning, and then it felt like he hit a wall," Gonzalez said. "He started leaving some mistakes up for us to pound on. We come out here knowing that we're going to fight. You're going to have to kill us to get us out."
The Aggies added an unearned run in the inning on two walks and an error. The 4-2 lead seemed huge because Stilson, a sophomore transfer from Texarkana College, had not allowed a run during 16 innings in his first five appearances for the Aggies.
WSU snapped the scoreless string, and threatened to saddle the flame-thrower with his first blown save. Matt Fanelli started the ninth inning with a stunning home run, and Brett Jacobs followed with a double to the fence in center that brought a visit to the mound from Childress.
"I walked out there after the double and said 'hey congratulations, you've got an ERA now and you're going to have to work for this one,' " Childress said. "He settled down and did a nice job."
The Cougars (9-2) got the potential tying run to third base on a groundout to second. Stilson struck out the next two batters on six fastballs, getting pinch hitter Patrick Claussen with the infield drawn in and then ending the game with the fifth strikeout against leadoff hitter Garry Kuykendall.
The three-game series will continue at 2:05 p.m. Saturday.
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