Long Propels Aggies to 15th Consecutive Win

Saturday, March 7

Houston, TX

7:00 PM

Texas A&M

15-0

Houston

8-7

Texas A&M

Houston

Mar 08, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

HOUSTON, Texas – Grayson Long registered one of the best performances of his career to propel the No. 11 Texas A&M Aggies to a 6-0 win over the No. 16 Houston Cougars at Minute Maid Park on Saturday evening. The win brings the Aggies' season opening win streak to 15, tied for the second-longest start in school annals.

Long pitched 7.0 scoreless innings, fanning a career-high 10 batters while only allowing three baserunners. The win brings his season record to 3-0 and lowered his season ERA to 2.38.

The 15-0 opening is tied with the 1976 season for the second-best foundation to a campaign. A&M's best start was 26-0 by vaunted the 1989 squad which finished 58-7.

A&M broke the scoring seal in the top of the fourth inning. Mitchell Nau poked a first-pitch offering through the right side of the infield for a leadoff single and Hunter Melton followed by tattooing a 1-1 service over the fence in left-center for a 2-0 lead. It marked Melton's second home run of the season.

Michael Barash added to the Aggie advantage with a leadoff home run, staking A&M to a 3-0 cushion.

The Aggie lead ballooned to 6-0 with three runs in the top of the seventh. The frame started with Logan Taylor reaching on a fielding error by the Cougars' shortstop. After Logan Nottebrok flied to center for the first out of the inning, Barash threaded a ball down the leftfield line that was menaced by a fan, resulting in a ground-rule double, putting two players in scoring position.

After Houston starter Jake LeMoine was lifted for Patrick Weigel, JB Moss poked a single to rightfield to plate Taylor and Allemand followed with a sacrifice fly bringing in Barash. Ryne Birk then smacked up a triple over the center fielder's head and up Tal's Hill. The triple plated Moss and extended the Aggie lead to 6-0.

Kyle Simonds closed out the game with two scoreless innings of relief. He scattered three walks while striking out two.

The loss was hung on LeMoine (1-1). He yielded five runs, three earned on six hits and one walk while striking out two in 6.1 innings of work.

Barash continued on his offensive hot streak with a 2-for-4 night that included his first Aggie home run, a double and two runs scored. Birk went 2-for-3 with one triple, one hit-by-pitch and one RBI.

Texas A&M wraps up its play at the Houston College Classic on Sunday with a game against the Baylor Bears. The game is scheduled to start at 2:35 pm at Minute Maid Park. The contest will be telecast live on Root Sports Southwest.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

Head coach Rob Childress
On Grayson Long's performance…
“He was as close to perfection as you could ask for. Ten strikeouts, no walks, and was in total command of the game from the start. I couldn't be more proud of him. It was his best performance in the maroon and white. We certainly needed to see that out of him. He's kind of been up-and-down the first few weeks of the season. Today he looked like a pretty special pitcher.”

Junior catcher Micheal Barash
On the offensive game…
“Coach (Will) Bolt and Coach (Justin) Seely have done a really great job with the hitters. We just try to have team at-bats all the time and do whatever we can to help the team win. We don't have one selfish hitter in the lineup.”

On Grayson Long's performance…
“Grayson was himself. That's the Grayson that we expect every week. He threw great and he had all of his pitches working for him. The main thing was that he was keeping the ball down. He was a bulldog out there. I was really happy with the way he threw.”

Junior pitcher Grayson Long
On the game…
“It felt great. I was on top of the ball and throwing the fastball wherever I wanted to. My secondary stuff went right along with it. It was a great team win with two great plays behind me. Michael Barash behind the plate was getting a lot of pitches called strikes. With the offense I have behind me it was kind of easy tonight.”