Aggies Blank Stephen F. Austin, 6-0

Tuesday, February 17

College Station

6:30 PM

Texas A&M

4-0

Stephen F. Austin

1-4

Stephen F Austin

Texas A&M

Feb 17, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Four Texas A&M pitchers combined on a shutout Tuesday evening as the Aggies toppled the Stephen F Austin Lumberjacks, 6-0, on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.

Turner Larkins, Ty Schlottmann, Kyle Simonds and Ryan Hendrix kept SFA off the scoreboard, scattering eight hits on the evening. The four combined to strike out 16 Lumberjacks while issuing just two free passes. The shutout extended the pitching staff's scoreless innings streak to 17.

Larkins (1-0) was impressive in his first career start. The true freshman logged nine strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work. He scattered five hits and one walk on the evening.

Schlottmann fanned the first batter he faced and then issued a walk before being spelled by Simonds. Entering the sixth with the bases loaded and two outs, Simonds struck out the first batter he faced and ended the day with four strikeouts in 2.1 innings of work. Hendrix struck out two of the four batters he faced in the ninth.

Texas A&M (4-0) drew first blood in the bottom of the first inning. JB Moss worked a five-pitch walk to start the inning and Ryne Birk put two runners in scoring position with a double to leftfield. Mitchell Nau plated Moss with a sacrifice fly and Nottebrok staked the Aggies to a 2-0 lead with a grounder to third base, knocking in Birk.

The Aggies manufactured a run with the assistance of the SFA defense in the bottom of the third. Birk led off the inning with an infield single, advanced to second and moved to third on a failed pick-off attempt. Nau knocked in Birk with his second sacrifice fly of the game to inflate the A&M cushion to 3-0.

The Maroon and White were able to create separation in the home half of the seventh inning with a three-run rally. With one out, Moss drew a seven-pitch walk and stole second base. The steal of second proved to be unnecessary as Birk blasted the next offering over the fence in left centerfield for a two-run dinger. Nau followed with a single through the left side of the infield and with two outs he found himself at third base after a balk and a wild pitch. Nick Banks laced a single through the left side of the infield to knock in Nau for the 6-0 advantage.

The Aggie offense racked up double digits in the hits column for the third time in four games. Texas A&M finished the evening with 11 hits, including three doubles and one home run.

Birk led the arsenal, going 3-for-5 with three runs, one double, one home run and two RBI. Banks went 4-for-4 with one stolen base, one double and one RBI. Nau added a pair of RBI.

Jarred Greene (0-1) was saddled with the loss for Stephen F. Austin (1-4). He allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits and one walk while striking out two over 4.0 innings.

Texas A&M returns to action Friday when the Aggies host the Penn State Nittany Lions for the start of a three-game series on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. Game times for the series are 6:35 pm on Friday, 2:05 on Saturday and 1:05 pm on Sunday.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Rob Childress
Thoughts on the game…
"I am very proud of the guys. We kind of got punched a little bit early but finally got it together and had a great performance. In the second inning, they had a lead-off single that they tried turning into a double. Logan Taylor sucked the momentum out of that with a great throw. In the third inning, Turner (Larkins) was able to get us off the field with a big strike out with the bases loaded to keep the momentum on our side. Then, in the 6th inning, he's able to punch a guy out who can't get a sacrifice bunt down. Then the bullpen came in and shut things down to keep the momentum on our side.

On the offense…
We had some amazing two strike at-bats in the seventh inning that allowed us to extend the lead. JB (Moss) had a two-strike walk, and then Ryan Birk hits the home run with two strikes. Nick Banks drives in the third run of that inning with two strikes. Those guys did a great job, not just in that inning, but all night long with two strikes."

Sophomore second baseman Ryne Birk
On the two-run home run in the seventh…
“It felt pretty good. But I couldn't have done it without JB Moss. His at-bat right before mine sucked nine or ten pitches out of him. You can't make that many good pitches in a row so he left me a cookie right down the middle and I got lucky on it. So you have to give a lot of credit to JB.”

Freshman pitcher Turner Larkins
On the first start at Olsen Field…
“At first I was kind of nervous. There were a couple innings there where I didn't have my best stuff. I just had to fight through it. Our offense was ridiculous tonight. It took so much pressure off of me as a pitcher. It didn't matter if I gave up five or six runs, we were going to score.”