Troy Wansing's One-Hit Performance Helps Aggies Defeat Tennessee In SEC Tournament
Planned or not, it literally rained on Troy Wansing's parade Tuesday at the Hoover Metroplex just before the ninth inning.
If not for a two-hour rain delay, perhaps Wansing would have taken the mound to close things out for Texas A&M in Round 1 of the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.
Wansing, one of Texas A&M's top transfer finds, was expected to become the new No. 2 pitcher in the weekend rotation after joining the program from Purdue. The sophomore southpaw featured a four-pitch arsenal and excellent command of a four-seam fastball that was supposed to be a highlight opposite Nathan Dettmer.
Call it the Yips. Call it new home jitters. Say it was just a sour showcase, but all the promise of Wansing's upside never reached its potential during the regular season for the Aggies. That was until Tuesday when Wansing delivered eight shutout innings of work to help No. 10-seed A&M pick up the 3-0 win over No. 7-seed Tennessee.
The Aggies will now face No. 2-seed Arkansas in a double-elimination showdown starting Wednesday. One more win should punch A&M's ticket to the national tournament starting next week. Two victories should almost guarantee the Aggies' spot among the final 68 programs.
“You’ve just got to play good baseball,” A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle told the SEC Network of the Aggies’ approach to the season’s end. “You can’t worry about the ‘what ifs’ and ‘if this happens then that happens’ — at the end of the day, everything before now is just pretense.”
Wansing never took his foot off the gas after working his way through a nine-pitch first inning. The Volunteers, who entered Tuesday ranked fourth among SEC programs in hits (540) and fifth in batting average (.294), couldn't seem to connect against Wansing's combination of four-seamers and curveballs.
The last time Wansing saw Tennesse's potent offense marked one of his shorter outings of the year. The Vols jumped out to an early 4-2 lead after the 6-4 lefthander allowed four runs on four hits and issued a pair of walks in 1.1 innings of work.
Cool, calm and overpowering, Wansing retired the first 16 batters faced before finally giving up a one-out single to Christian Scott at the top of the sixth. Scott never made it past first base as Wansing retired back-to-back Vols on 2-2 counts.
“‘Schloss’ actually sat me down (Monday) and was like, ‘Hey, if you just go and do your thing, you’re going to dominate these guys,’” Wansing told the SEC Network. “That was all the confidence I needed, and that showed.”
A&M's offense was stagnant, but it found life at the right moments. Trevor Werner drew first blood in the third inning on a fielder's choice, scoring Hunter Haas from third. An inning later, Blake Bost knocked Jordan Thompson in from second on an RBI single up the middle.
Tennessee starting right-hander Seth Halvorsen commanded the strike zone with his fastball, but ill-advised hits led to scoring opportunities for A&M early. Halvorsen struck out six batters, but he also issued three walks to put runners in scoring position twice. He finished with two earned runs and three hits on 83 pitches thrown.
Jace LaViolette's hit fest didn't slow down away from College Station yet again. After earning SEC Player of the Week thanks to a three-home run performance against the Bulldogs, the 6-6 freshman launched a no-doubt 443-foot solo home run over the right-center field wall to tack on another run to lead off the sixth.
LaViolette finished 1-for-2 and drew two walks. First baseman Jack Moss finished with his team-leading 24th multi-hit game, while Bost and Thompson each finished with singles.
When gameplay resumed, Wansing's day was done. He allowed one hit and struck out seven, both marking career-highs in Aggieland. Junior Evan Aschenbeck entered the game and needed 12 pitches to close things out, allowing zero hits and recording a strikeout.
“We’ll take it and just keep moving on,” said Schlossnagle.
First pitch Wednesday against the Razorbacks (39-15) is scheduled for 30 minutes following No. 6-seed South Carolina's matchup against No. 3-seed LSU.
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