Aggies Top Mizzou, Earn Berth in Big 12 Title Game

Thursday, May 27

Oklahoma City, Okla.

7:30 PM

Texas A&M

38-19-1

Missouri

28-26

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Texas A&M	0	1	1	0	0	2	1	2	0	7	11	1
Missouri	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	6	3

May 27, 2010 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

May 27, 2010

Final Stats

Rob Childress, Barret Loux, & Joaquin Hinojosa [mp3]

Tim Jamieson, Aaron Senne, & Brett Nicholas [mp3]

OKLAHOMA CITY - Texas A&M earned a spot in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship game with a 7-2 win over Missouri Thursday evening before 4,707 fans at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark.

The Aggies (38-19-1) won the pool by defeating the Tigers (28-26) after Texas Tech downed Texas earlier in the afternoon. A&M, which has a game remaining against the Longhorns Saturday afternoon, can end up tied with either Tech or Mizzou but holds the tiebreaker over both.

"Both teams knew coming in to this game what it meant--the opportunity to play on Sunday," A&M coach Rob Childress said. "I thought the story for us was Barret Loux without question. He got us off to a great start. The difference in the game was after Missouri fought back, we were able to answer in the seventh and eighth innings."

Junior Barret Loux provided another strong start for the Aggies, carrying a perfect game into the fifth inning and allowing the offense to chip away at the Tiger pitching staff. Joe Patterson drove in runs in the second and third, staking A&M to a quick 2-0 lead.

The Tigers got their first runner of the game with two outs in the fifth on an Eric Garcia single. Russell LaFleur then doubled to put the tying run at second, but Loux induced a first-pitch groundout off the bat of Jesse Santo to preserve the shutout.

Aggie shortstop Joe Patterson scored on an attempted suicide squeeze play when the ball got away from the catcher and back to the backstop.

RBIs by Aaron Senne and Conner Mach in the sixth got the runs back for Missouri, but A&M again responded in their ensuing at-bat when Caleb Shofner would drive in the final runs of the night in the eighth.

Loux improved to 10-2 on the year, allowing six hits and two runs over seven innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out seven. John Stilson allowed one walk in two no-hit frames of relief.

Mizzou starter Kelly Fick (2-2) suffered the loss, giving up two runs on four hits in 2.1 innings of work.

Hinojosa, Patterson, Gonzalez and Andrew Collazo each had two hits, as the Aggies out-hit MU, 11-6. For the Tigers, LaFleur paced the offense with a 2-for-4 night.

Texas A&M has Friday off before wrapping up pool play Saturday at 12:30 p.m. against No. 1-ranked Texas (46-10). The Aggies will send senior Clayton Ehlert (3-6, 5.35 ERA) to the mound to face Longhorn junior and Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Cole Green (10-0, 2.08). Fans can listen locally on WTAW-AM 1620 or follow through free live video and stats at big12sports.com.

POSTGAME NOTES: The Aggies clinched a spot in the championship game with the victory, and will play for the title for the fourth time (champions in 2007, runners-up in 1998 and 2001 ... A&M has won four straight at the Big 12 Championship for the first time in school history ... with nine strikeouts on the night, the pitching staff ran its season total to 538, which now ranks second all time ... the school record of 568 was set last season ... the Aggies are now 20-19 all-time at the event and 18-13 at Bricktown Ballpark ... A&M is now 2-0 all-time as a No. 4 seed, 3-2 against No. 8 seeds and 15-8 as the higher-seeded team ... Texas A&M now leads the all-time series with Mizzou, 40-28-1, and 2-1 in the Big 12 Tourney ... Barret Loux struck out seven on the night, bringing his season total to 126 and career to 269 ... the seven punchouts moved him into sixth on the school's all-time single-season chart, passing Joe Patterson (six) extended hit streaks ... Joe Patterson broke for home on a suicide squeeze attempt in the sixth inning, and scored when the pitch got by the catcher ... it's scored as a stolen base, and thus is the Aggies' first swipe of home plate since May 12, 2009 (Caleb Shofner vs Texas State) ... A&M has held its opponent to two runs in four straight games.

ADDITIONAL POSTGAME QUOTES

A&M COACH Rob Childress

(on returning to the title game for the first time since 2007) "Well, it's important. That's been our goal from the time we got on the bus Monday, was to get to that point to give ourselves an opportunity to win a championship. We didn't win the regular season one, Texas is very talented and played at a very, very high level for a 10-week period of time, and they didn't give anyone else a chance. When you come up here to this tournament, there are seven other teams who are pretty hungry for a trophy and a ring, and I'm glad we get that opportunity Sunday to play."

A&M P BARRET LOUX

(on what was working tonight) "Just pretty much everything. I was moving the fastball in and out, changeups, curveballs, and threw a few sliders here and there."

A&M OF Joaquin Hinojosa

(on crashing into the wall in left and then tripling one inning later) "Well, I always try to give Barret or any of the pitchers 100 percent all the time, as much as I can do. I was really mad I didn't catch the ball, I wish I would have came out with that thing. Coach came out and asked me if I wanted to come out and I told him no, that I wanted to finish this thing out. I got lucky and got that hit at the end that really helped us out a lot."

MISSOURI HEAD COACH TIM JAMIESON

(on the pitching staff's struggles) "That's just how we've been all year. Tonight was not an atypical performance. We were really good yesterday on the mound and weren't good today on the mound. A&M was really good on the mound. It's hard to win when you're being controlled by the opposition and you can't control the other team."

(on Barret Loux) "I thought he was just as good tonight, and not really just this year, but his career. He's been good against us. He's a very good pitcher and has great stuff, and he continues to get better because he broadens what he's capable of doing. He's got different ways of attacking hitters. I think tonight was the first time I saw him throw that many different pitches for strikes."