Aggies Drop 4th Straight, Downed By No. 21 Texas in Rivalry Loss

COLLEGE STATION — For the 12th Man of Aggieland, a rivalry game in any sport against the Texas Longhorns is a tradition as important as any on campus.

In the Texas A&M Aggies' last matchup against the Longhorns, they eliminated their arch-rival from Omaha's College World Series in a 10-2 victory — much to the delight of Aggie fans — but the latest iteration of the two teams' feud saw Texas A&M hosting the No. 21 ranked Texas on Olsen field Tuesday evening.

And this time, the Longhorns got the last laugh, breaking their previous four-game losing streak against Texas A&M.

It was a hard-hitting day for Texas, which tallied 13 hits on the night en route to their 5-2 victory. The Longhorns were led by redshirt senior Eric Kennedy, who tallied three hits, two runs, and a stolen base in his five at-bats. Redshirt junior Porter Brown led Texas in RBIs, recording three by the end of the night.

Though the Longhorns struck first — recording two early runs on the Aggies' freshman pitcher Shane Sdao — Texas also struggled early on the mound, advancing two runners from wild pitches. One of the runners made it home, as junior Hunter Haas went on to score the Aggies' first run of the night to make it 2-1 in favor of the Longhorns.

Texas tacked on one more to its lead in the third inning behind four straight base hits, which left the bases loaded and the Aggies with a new pitcher. Freshman right-hander Ty Sexton got the nod to replace Sdao, and closed the third inning in three up, three down fashion to stall Texas' offense and keep its lead at 3-1.

Sexton continued his run through the fifth, throwing three strikeouts in 10 at-bats, holding the Longhorns scoreless for the fourth and fifth innings.

But despite keeping Texas at bay, the Aggies were unable to get their bats going after the first inning.

Their biggest sign of life came in the fourth when junior Trevor Werner hit a deep shot to right center field. The ball rolled past both Texas outfielders and hit the back wall, but Werner lost his footing a couple of times, which slowed him down enough to be tagged out as he slid into third, stopping any scoring opportunities the Aggies had.

The fourth and fifth inning yielded the same 3-1 result in favor of Texas, and the game stayed that way until the sixth inning when Haas hit a near-identical shot to left-center field — this time safely sliding into third base.

The next at-bat for the Aggies saw a base hit by junior Jack Moss bring in Haas to give Texas A&M its first run since the first inning, and it headed to the dugout down 3-2.

Texas A&M found itself at a crossroads in the eighth inning — subbing in four different pitchers in an attempt to slow down the Longhorns, before finally deciding on left-hander Brandyn Garcia to handle Texas' runners in scoring position.

The junior gave up one more run to give the Longhorns a 5-2 lead heading into the Aggies' penultimate at-bat, but not much was done, as the Aggies recorded zero runs for the fifth inning of the game.

Despite some shaky pitching from Texas to close the game, the Longhorns survived a comeback bid by Texas A&M, which managed to get two runners in scoring position, and completed their 5-2 road victory.

Next for the Aggies is a weekend-long series against the Ole Miss Rebels at home, where both teams will enter the weekend looking to both break their losing streaks and earn a conference victory.

First pitch from Olsen Field is set for 6:00 p.m.

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