Aggies Drop 5-1 Decision to Mississippi State

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 17 Texas A&M Aggies dropped a 5-1 decision to the No. 13 Mississippi State Bulldogs Friday evening on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
 
Mississippi State jumped out early with runs in the first two frames off Aggie starter Corbin Martin (5-3).  The SEC's leader in average, RBI and home runs, Brent Rooker, ripped a one-out double in the first followed by a hit-by-pitch. Both baserunners came around to score on two-out singles from Elijah MacNamee and Hunter Vansau.
 
In the second, a two-out error gave Rooker a chance to extend the lead on his second double of the game, putting MSU in front 3-0.
 
The only Aggie run off Bulldog starter Denver McQuary (2-1) came on Blake Kopetsky's first career long ball. The senior's solo blast in the fifth cleared the right field fence near the visiting bullpen and put the deficit at 3-1.
 
Mississippi State (31-17, 15-8 SEC) chased Martin from the game in the sixth. Martin finished with 5.2 innings, three runs, two earned and three strikeouts. With a runner on third, Cason Sherrod came in and fanned the hot-hitting Rooker with for the final out of the sixth.
 
The Bulldogs would make it 4-1 scoring on an infield hit in the seventh.  The Bulldogs added insurance in a one-run ninth before Cole Gordon, who worked the final four innings, closed the door on their win.
 
Austin Homan highlighted the offensive output for Texas A&M (34-14, 14-9 SEC) reaching in each of his three plate appearances and accounting for two of the five hits.
 
The Aggies will be in search of their sixth straight SEC series win in the rubber match, set for 1:02 pm Saturday on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
 
 
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
 
Head Coach Rob Childress
On Corbin Martin's pitching tonight…
"He was much better as he got going. Early in the game, I didn't do him any favors as far as managing how we were pitching to guys. I'll take full blame for that, but he did a nice job keeping it together. We gave up a two-out run in the second, a two-out run in the seventh and off they went. We gave them a free one there in the ninth with three free base runners but all-in-all, I thought he managed things quite well. It could've gotten away from him early."
 
On second game in the series…
"Tonight was Mississippi State's night."
 
On Brent Rooker…
"He's a special player. We've got to try to eliminate his opportunities and sometimes you can't when he gets those opportunities. You've got to make pitches and it's tough to do. We did once tonight but he grabbed the lead early for them."
 
Junior RHP Corbin Martin
On tonight's outing…
"They were doing a really good job of putting the ball in play and finding holes and having big, two-out hits. Then, I hurt myself in the second inning with that error and [Brent] Rooker hits that double and they go up 3-0. But, I just had to do a really good job of trusting the guys behind me making plays and keep putting up zeroes for us to have a chance to win. I didn't have my best stuff, but I felt like I competed and our guys played really good defense. We could've folded early in the game and we stuck with it and we gave ourselves a chance to win. We had some really good at-bats early in the game, hitting the ball hard. The balls just weren't falling for us. The guys had to stick with it and sometimes baseball's like that where you're hitting the ball all the way around the field and they're just making good plays. Hats off to Mississippi State, they played a good game."
 
Senior OF Blake Kopetsky
On his first home run as an Aggie…
"Growing up here and having birthday parties here, it's an awesome feeling to finally do that. In the end, it didn't really matter but like I said, we have less than 24 hours when we come out and get another win."