Texas A&M's True Freshman Trio Power Aggies To Midweek Victory

COLLEGE STATION, TX --- The No. 24 Texas A&M Aggies were able to keep a goose egg in the loss column with an 8-3 victory over the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders Tuesday night in front of the home crowd at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.

It took a few innings for the ball to get rolling for the Texas A&M Aggies, but once it did, the momentum never faltered for the rest of the game.

And it was all in part to the team's true freshman, who stepped up offensively when the team's veteran players struggled at the plate Tuesday night.

Kellner, Wilson, Partida Homer In Aggies' Midweek Victory

Texas A&M Aggies left fielder Caden Sorrell (13) hits a RBI single against the Tennessee Volunteers during the third inning at Charles Schwab Field Omaha. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

The Islanders got on the board first with back-to-back home runs by Cade Sanchez and Noah Cassie off of Texas A&M's Gavin Lyons in the top of the second inning, and after the Aggies took a while to answer at the plate, fans wondered if the offensive firepower had been used up during their opening series against Tennessee Tech.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, however, Nico Partida proved that that wasn't the case as he launched a home run 416 feet to straightaway center field, his second of the season, to put the Maroon and White on the board.

The Aggies stayed behind by a run until the bottom of the sixth when another true freshman, Boston Kellner, bounced his first collegiate home run off the scoreboard in left field to score two runs and give the Aggies a go-ahead 3-2 lead.

A&M-Corpus Christi would still keep their bid for an upset alive, though, as Hunter Azemar's single into left scored Jackson Smith to tie the game at three runs apiece.

And then the bats really came alive for the true Texas A&M team.

Jorian Wilson put a mediocre opening series to rest with his first hit of his college career, a two-run homer into the visitor's bullpen to put the Aggies ahead by two in the bottom of the seventh.

The bottom of the eighth was the fork getting stuck in the Islanders, as a Bear Harrison home run and a Terrence Kiel II single scored a combined three runs to give A&M an 8-3 lead.

Three Clayton Freshcorn strikeouts later in the top of the ninth, and the Aggies were sitting at 4-0 on the season.

Gavin Lyons started the game for A&M and took the no decision in the contest after pitching five innings, allowing four hits, two earned runs, and striking out six.

In what was called a "humbling" performance by head coach Michael Earley, outfielder Caden Sorrell saw a cooldown at the plate after his red-hot weekend, going 0-for-5 with a trio of strikeouts.

First baseman Gavin Grahovac was the only Aggie with multiple hits in the game, going 2-for-3 with a double, a single, and two walks, scoring one run for the Ags on Kiel's single in the eighth inning.

Coach Earley tipped his cap to the Islanders' pitching during the contest, acknowledging that it gave his lineup some trouble given how different it was from what they saw over the weekend.

"That's a good freakin' team, man," Earley said in his postgame interview. "That was some real stuff on the mound. Definitely a step or two up from what we saw all weekend, and they presented a little bit of a challenge."

During his chat with the media after the game, it almost seemed that Jorian Wilson simply swung the bat and let physics do the rest during his home run that gave the Aggies the lead in the seventh.

"Honestly, I'm not too sure what the pitch was," Wilson said. "I just saw it, I swung, and just prayed for the best, and that's how my team was, they were building me up."

Texas A&M will look to stay undefeated as they gear up for their next weekend series, a three-game hosting of the Penn Quakers starting Friday night at 6:00 PM.