(#13) Oklahoma 6, (#15) Texas A&M 5

Friday, May 15

Norman, Okla.

6:30 PM

Texas A&M

34-19, 14-11

Oklahoma

38-16, 15-10

Texas A&M

Oklahoma

May 15, 2009 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

May 15, 2009

Final Stats

NORMAN, Okla. - Texas A&M hit four home runs, two by Kevin Gonzalez, but came up on the short end of a slugfest as the 15th-ranked Aggies fell to No. 13 Oklahoma, 6-5, Friday night before 1,236 fans at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

All 11 runs came off the long ball, nine with two outs, as the teams combined for seven home runs on a windy night in Norman.

With the loss the Aggies dropped to 34-19 and 14-11 in Big 12 play, while OU (38-16, 15-10) moved into third place in the league standings.

Sooner center fielder Jamie Johnson led off the game with a first-pitch home run to center, his 12th of the year, to give OU an early 1-0 lead.

A&M answered in the second, blasting a pair of solo shots to go up 2-1. Kyle Colligan began the inning by driving an 0-1 pitch high over the left center field fence for his team-leading 13th home run of the year. Three batters later, Gonzalez deposited his fourth long ball of the season off the hitter's eye in center field.

Bryant Hernandez capped a two-out rally for OU in the third with a three-run shot high down the left field line off A&M starter Brooks Raley that put the Sooners back on top at 4-2.

Gonzalez would strike again in the top of the fourth. Following a two-out walk to Caleb Shofner, the Aggie catcher drove a 1-1 pitch from Oklahoma starter Andrew Doyle high off the top of the hitter's eye in center to tie the game at four.

Another two-out home run for Oklahoma--a two-run blast off the bat of J.T. Wise, his Big 12-leading 17th of the season--would put the Sooners up 6-4 in the fifth.

Following the Wise home run, Raley and reliever Alex Wilson combined to allow just one Sooner baserunner past first base, but A&M was able to manage a walk and two more hits the rest of the way.

The score remained the same until the top of the eighth. With two outs, Luke Anders deposited his 11th home run of the season over the fence in right to pull the Aggies within one.

OU went to closer Ryan Duke in the ninth, who retired the three batters he faced in order to pick up his league-leading 13th save of the season.

Raley (7-2) went six innings and gave up nine hits, six runs and a walk while punching out three. Wilson gave up a hit and struck out three in two innings of relief.

Doyle (7-4) allowed six hits, four runs and four walks in seven innings of work while fanning five.

The series continues on Saturday with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. Aggie freshman Ross Hales (5-1, 3.50 ERA) will take the mound. The game will air on WTAW-AM 1620 and free live video will be available on radioaggieland.com and aggieathletics.com.

POSTGAME NOTES

• A&M hit four home runs in a game for the third time this season...the Aggies hit a season-high six on March 8 against Utah and four on April 4 at Texas Tech.

• Alex Wilson strikeout of Matt Harughty in the seventh inning was the 500th by Texas A&M pitching in 2009, making the Aggies the eighth team in history to reach that milestone...six strikeouts on the night brought A&M's season total to 502, just 34 shy of the school record (536, set in 1991 and 1999).

• Kyle Colligan became the fifth player in school history to reach 40 career home runs with his second-inning dinger...Colligan joined Daylan Holt (56), Scott Livingstone (50), John Byington (47) and Mike Scanlin (43) in the Aggies' 40-home run club.

• Kyle Colligan, April 18 vs Nebraska; Brodie Greene, May 2 vs Dallas Baptist; Joe Patterson, May 5 vs Sam Houston State).

• Joe Patterson extended his career-best hit streak to eight games with a fifth-inning single.

• Brodie Greene saw his career-high hit streak end at 11 games.

• Eight of A&M's 11 Big 12 losses on the year have been by two runs or less.

• Flags at Mitchell Park were at half staff in remembrance of former Oklahoma All-American basketball player Wayman Tisdale, who passed away Friday morning.

• Game-time temperature was 82 degrees with partly cloudy skies and winds blowing out to left center at 21 miles per hour (gusting to 32).

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH Rob Childress: "Before the game we talked about avoiding the big inning. We can recover from the solo home run, but we can't recover from the walk and a hit batter and then a three-run home run. Tonight, every run that was scored was off of a home run. We hit three solo home runs and a two-run homer, and we took advantage of one of their two-out walks to hit a two-run homer. But in the third inning we give up a three-run homer on a two-out walk and a ball that was off the third-base bag that turns into a double. In the fifth inning we gave up a double and a homer with two outs. They got the big hits with two outs. We have to come out and even the series tomorrow."

(on Kevin Gonzalez's night) "We've asked him to catch every inning of every game and he's done a marvelous job for us. He's worked really hard on making an adjustment offensively, and he got paid back tonight. He's given us everything he's got every time he takes the field."