Texas A&M and Kansas looked as though they were playing a game of "I don't want it, you take it" in the final innings Saturday at Olsen Field.
In the ninth inning Caleb Shofner took it, hitting a single into shallow left field to score Kyle Colligan for a 7-6 victory, the Aggies' second straight over the Jayhawks.
With one out in the ninth, Kyle Colligan was hit by pitch. Brooks Raley then hit a sharp grounder to first base that Preston Land got a glove on to slow down. Second baseman Robby Price picked the ball up and tossed it to pitcher Paul Smyth, who was charged with an error when he was unable to hang onto the throw as Raley went sprinting past the bag. Colligan ended up at third on the play.
Shofner then collected his game-high third hit for the game-winning RBI.
"He's [Smyth] a great pitcher, and a two-seam fastball rode in on me the first pitch and he threw a pretty good slider the second pitch," Shofner said. "So I just scooted up in the box and I was trying to grind and he left a fastball up in the zone and I was able to turn and put a pretty good swing on it."
Colligan waited patiently at third to see if the ball would drop in front of Casey Lytle, who was playing fairly deep despite the wind blowing in at about 20 mph. When it did, the senior leadoff hitter scored easily.
Shofner had singled to left in his previous at-bat to give the No. 14 Aggies (17-9, 5-3 Big 12) a 6-3 lead in the seventh. Raley scored on that hit after singling and stealing his Big 12-leading 16th base of the year.
Kansas (15-9, 3-2) had its opportunities to do more damage in the seventh and eighth, stranding two runners in scoring position after hitting into a double play with the bases loaded and leaving the bases loaded in the eighth when Nick Fleece came in and stopped the bleeding with a strikeout and an easy groundout.
Fleece's strikeout was against cleanup hitter Buck Afenir, who he struck out the night before in the eighth inning.
"I thought he was great today," A&M coach Rob Childress said of Fleece (3-0), who had a save Friday and has now retired all 10 batters he's faced this series. "I thought his stuff was every bit as good today as it was yesterday."
The Jayhawks still scored three runs in the eighth, two on bases-loaded walks by Estevan Uriegas and another on an infield single to tie the game at 6-6.
The runs were charged to Shane Minks, who had entered in the seventh and with one pitch got the Aggies to the dugout with a double-play ball with the bases loaded.
"I think we won in spite of ourselves today," Childress said. "[There were ] a couple of plays that should have been made whether it's the sun or whatnot. On the pitching side of things, we didn't make them earn everything they got and we have to do a better job of that."
The Aggies let a run get away in the eighth. With one out a suicide squeeze went awry when Nick Anders was unable to reach a Colton Murray pitch that was down and away. Afenir tagged out pinch runner Adam Smith at the plate and Murray ended the threat by striking out Anders.
Kansas jumped on A&M starter Alex Wilson for two runs in the first thanks to RBI doubles by Afenir and Tony Thompson.
The Aggies weren't as successful early against T.J. Walz, who set down the first nine hitters he faced, six by strikeout.
The fourth inning was a different story. Colligan walked, Shofner singled, Anders doubled and Gonzalez continued his tear by driving in two with a two-out single.
A&M, which has struggled recently with runners in scoring position, was 6 for 9 on Saturday.
"I was really proud of our offense and the way we adjusted," Childress said. "[After the third inning] I think we only struck out twice the rest of the game and that's a tribute to our hitters getting back focused and being able to grind."
Luke Anders took sole possession of the team lead in home runs with his fourth, a blast over the 375-foot marker on the right-field fence in the sixth to put the Aggies up 4-3.
Anders credited the coaches for the turnaround from the first three innings to the next 2 1/3 against Walz
"Coach [Jeremy] Talbot and [Matt] Deggs called the hitters up and said, 'Start seeing the ball ... don't go out chasing it and just slow the game down,'" Anders said. "Because the first three innings that guy was unhittable, throwing strikes everywhere and we were looking funny, so we just decided to come back, settle down and we adjusted real well."
Anders' homer essentially chased Walz, who walked pinch hitter Joe Patterson on four pitches after the home run and was taken out in favor of Cameron Selik.
Nick Anders helped the Aggies build a three-run cushion by starting the seventh with a single. He was sacrificed to second and scored on a Raley single.
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NOTES -- Colligan has a 17-game hitting streak in Big 12 games after singling in the fifth. ... Raley has reached base in all 23 games he has an official at-bat. ... Shofner was bailed out in the fourth thanks to Gonzalez' two-out single. Shofner could have scored on the previous at-bat when Kansas shortstop David Narodowski had to go deep in the hole to throw out Patterson. ... Kansas center fielder Jason Brunansky is the son of former major leaguer Tom Brunansky, who played for five teams but mostly for the Angels and Twins. ... Reliever Brett Bochy, who threw 2/3 of an inning on Saturday, is the son of the San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy.
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