Washington State outfielder Kyle Johnson took the game ball from the Cougars' 7-5 victory over Texas A&M back to the team hotel Saturday night after a scary incident that brought a rare ninth-inning hush to Olsen Field.
A final-inning replacement in center field, Johnson collided with Cougars right fielder Derek Jones as they chased a fly ball hit by Joe Patterson that fell for double with Washington State leading 7-5 to begin the bottom of the ninth. The crowd of 3,347 fell silent upon seeing Johnson's body shake violently in convulsions after his head hit Jones' knee.
The game was delayed 18 minutes while emergency personnel treated Johnson, a sophomore from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Johnson was placed on a back board and taken by cart off the field to an ambulance. He was treated and released from the College Station Medical Center around 7:30 p.m. Med spokesperson Melissa Purl said Johnson received the game ball from one of his coaches before leaving the hospital.
Late Saturday night, a WSU spokesman said Johnson sustained a concussion and will not play at least for the remaining six games of the team's road trip.
The incident resulted in a strange end to the game as the Cougars returned to the field after the delay to finish the victory in unusually subdued conditions.
"Hats off to our guys," said WSU assistant coach Spencer Allen, who took over after head coach Donnie Marbut left in the ambulance with Johnson. "Everyone's rattled, but you've got to block it out and make the plays. It starts right there [with closer Adam Conley]. He didn't get much help on a couple of plays, but he kept throwing strikes down in the zone."
Conley returned from the break to face the middle of the Aggie batting order. The hard-throwing lefty got a fly ball to Jones for the first out. After a throwing error put runners at first and second, Conley enticed Friday's hitting hero, Kevin Gonzalez, to ground into a game-ending double play.
"You've gotta give [Conley] credit for keeping his composure," A&M head coach Rob Childress said. "You've gotta give that guy credit for sitting over there for 20 minutes with the game on the line on the road. I thought he did a really nice job."
The Cougars (10-2) bounced back quickly Saturday after striking out 18 times in a 4-3 loss in the series opener. WSU stopped A&M's streak of spectacular starting pitching by scoring five runs in the second inning.
No. 9 hitter Cody Bartlett supplied the big blow with a three-run homer to right-center.
"[Barret Loux] threw lights-out last night," Bartlett said. "We just had to tip our caps to him. He did his job, and we didn't do ours. Today was a new day. I felt like we made the right adjustments and swung the bats well."
A&M starter Ross Stripling (3-1) allowed a single and walk to start the second. With the Aggies playing a defense on which Childress said he may have made the wrong call, Stripling fielded Matt Fanelli's sacrifice bunt and threw high over third baseman Matt Juengel to let a run score.
"When you don't get an out on a bunt play, you're usually looking at a big inning," Childress said. "They did a good job behind that bunt of getting big hits."
Cougar starter Spencer Jackson (3-0) held the Aggies scoreless through five innings, allowing the visitors to take a 7-0 lead. A&M battled back into the game and brought the fans to life by scoring five runs in the sixth, highlighted by Caleb Shofner's three-run homer.
Threatening for more, the Aggies put runners at first and second in each of the last three innings without scoring. Reliever Seth Harvey struck out Gonzalez to end the seventh, and Conley got Brodie Greene on a liner to center in the eighth.
A&M (12-3) saw a nine-game winning streak end despite collecting 15 hits, including four by leadoff man Andrew Collazo and three by Shofner.
The series finale is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. Sunday.
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