Baseball Wins Fifth Straight, 9-3, Over Penn State

Friday, February 20

College Station

6:30 PM

Texas A&M

5-0

Penn State

0-4

Penn State

Texas A&M

Feb 20, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 23 Texas A&M Aggies remained perfect on the season, toppling the Penn State Nittany Lions, 9-3, in Friday evening's series opener on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.

The Maroon and White are now off to a 5-0 start for the first time since the 2012 campaign.

The A&M offensive arsenal put on another display, logging their first four home run game since May 4, 2012 when the Aggies dropped four bombs against Texas Tech. Blake Allemand, JB Moss, Logan Nottebrok and Logan Taylor each rang up dingers for Texas A&M. The Aggies have nine home runs through the first five games. In 2014, the Maroon and White did not hit their ninth home run until the 22nd game of the season.

The Aggies drew first blood in the bottom of the first inning. With one out, Ryne Birk bounced a single up the middle and Mitchell Nau dropped a line drive in front of a diving Nittany Lion rightfielder for a double, putting two runners in scoring position. After Nottebrok struck out for the second out of the inning, Nick Banks sent a 2-2 offering back up the middle to plate both runners and stake the Aggies to a 2-0 lead.
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Allemand inflated the cushion to 3-0 in the bottom of the first when he hit a leadoff tater off the scoreboard in leftfield. It marked the second home run of his career with the other coming in the Aggies' series finale against Georgia on St. Patrick's Day 2013.

The Aggies continued to churn out runs in the third inning. With one out, Nau singled to left field and Nottebrok singled through the right side of the infield to put runners on the corners. Banks plated both runners with a gapper to left centerfield for a double and the 5-0 lead.

After Nau worked a four-pitch walk in the fifth, Nottebrok followed with his first home run of the season, a two-run job off the scoreboard in leftfield for the 7-0 margin.

Taylor led off the sixth with a moon shot over the left centerfield fence for an 8-0 advantage.

Penn State took advantage of a fortuitous bounce in the eighth to break a 25-inning scoring streak by A&M pitchers. With Cody Whiting on in relief. Ryan Richter drew a seven-pitch walk. Tyler Kendall appeared to ground into an inning-ending double play, but the ground ball took an nine-foot hop over the head of charging second baseman Birk, resulting in a single to put runners on the corners. Nick Riotto knocked in Richter with a sacrifice fly to centerfield and Aaron Novak homered to left field to cut the Aggies lead to 8-3.

Texas A&M's cavalcade of runs wrapped up in the eighth, when Moss stroked a solo home run, his second of the season to give the Maroon and White a 9-3 edge.

Nau rode herd on the Nittany Lions pitching staff, going 3-for-3 with one walk, three runs and two doubles. The senior is hitting .667 (10-for-15) with five doubles through the first five games of the season. Banks went 2-for-3 with a career-high four RBI. Nottebrok batted 2-for-3 with two runs, one home run and two RBI.

AJ Minter (2-0) earned the win, pitching 5.0 innings of shutout ball in the start. He scattered two hits and five walks and recorded a career-high nine strikeouts. Kyle Simonds worked 2.0 innings of blank relief, yielding two hits. Simonds has worked 8.1 shutout innings on the season. Mark Ecker closed out the game with a scoreless ninth, allowing one hit while fanning two.

Nick Hedge (0-1) was saddled with the loss for Penn State. He allowed six runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out three over 4.0 innings.

Greg Guers and Aaron Novak both logged two hits to lead the Penn State offense. Guers went 2-for-4 with one double. Novak batted 2-for-3 with one run, one home run and two RBI.

The Aggies and Nittany Lions return to action on Saturday with a 2:05 pm first pitch.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head coach Rob Childress
On the game…
“I'm proud of our guys. On a day like today with the wind blowing out, I bet we hit 40 balls out in BP, it would have been real easy for us against their veteran pitcher, who can throw three pitches for a strike in any count, for us to have a frustrating night. From the first inning on we were locked into an approach. We stayed toward the middle of the field. We hit some balls out of the yard but our approach was outstanding. It started in the first inning. Our four-hole hitter strikes out with runners in scoring position and then Banks come up with two strikes and gets the base hit. Really proud of our guys, mature approach.”

On AJ Minter…
“I thought his misses were small. He had another outstanding performance and certainly we have to get him deeper into the game for us to do what we want to do going forward. He knows that. He threw a few more pitches than he did last week and we'll try to push him over 100 next week. He needs to get us to the sixth or the seventh, but I still I thought he was fantastic. He allowed us to score and get a big lead. Then Kyle Simonds gave us two big shutout innings and then it was really good to get Mark Ecker out there tonight. I thought he was really good as well.”

Sophomore rightfielder Nick Banks
On the offense…
“Coach (Will) Bolt preaches approach to us. A lot of the guys looked at the wind when it was blowing out before batting practice and got real excited but it was all business after that. We stayed within our approach. I think our great batting practice carried over into the game.”

Senior designated hitter Mitchell Nau
On staying with your approach, not swinging for the fences…
“That was one thing we talked about before the game. It would have been really easy to come out here and get your swing off and it probably would have paid off a couple times, but it wouldn't have paid off collectively like we did tonight. The home runs will happen with the work we do in the weight room and the physicality of the guys we have. But getting outside yourself and trying to do too much would have been our kryptonite especially on a night like tonight. With a soft-tossing lefty it had disaster written all over it. I think it shows the maturity of this team. We stayed into it, trusted what the coaches had for us and we ran it off to perfection.”