LaViolette Blasts Aggies Past Bulldogs

Friday, May 19

Starkville, Miss.

6:00 PM

Texas A&M

31-23, 0

Mississippi State

27-25, 0

Texas AM

Mississippi State

Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics

May 19, 2023 | Baseball

Box Score

STARKVILLE, Miss. – The Texas A&M Aggies got three home runs from freshman Jace LaViolette, including a go-ahead three-run bomb in the top of the ninth inning to take down Mississippi State, 6-4, on Friday night at Dudy Noble Field.

LaViolette homered in each of his first two at-bats of the game to put each of the Aggies' runs on the board and then delivered again in the ninth with the Aggies (31-23, 13-16 SEC) down 4-3. He drove in all six A&M runs for the game and became the second Aggie in the span of a week – joining Trevor Werner – to homer three times in a game, a feat which had not been done by an Aggie since 1999.

Additionally, the three home runs pushed LaViolette's season total to 18 and past John Byington for the Texas A&M freshman home run record, a mark which had stood since 1987.

He was joined by Jack Moss' 3-for-5 night as the pair combined for six of the Aggies' eight hits for the game. The effort made good of quality work from the A&M pitching staff with Chris Cortez getting the win with 1.1 innings of scoreless relief and Evan Aschenbeck securing his second save of the year by getting the game's final two outs.

Freshman Justin Lamkin got the nod for the start and after a shaky first inning, settled in to deliver 5.0 quality innings before handing the ball off to freshman Shane Sdao in the sixth. Lamkin finished with six strikeouts and allowed just two runs, both in the first, and allowed just one hit in his final 4.0 innings of work.

Sdao was also good in his 2.0 innings of work, surrendering just two runs on four hits.

A&M led 3-2 on the strength of the first two homers from LaViolette entering the bottom of the seventh before Mississippi State (27-25, 9-20 SEC) took the lead with single runs in both the seventh and eighth innings. LaViolette then surged the Aggies ahead with his three-run bomb in the ninth, but a pair of one-out walks made things dicey in the bottom half of the inning.

However, A&M was able to work out of the jam with Aschenbeck coming on to strike out Kellum Clark with two runners on before Travis Chestnut tracked down a fly ball in the right-center field gap off the bat of Slate Alford to end the game.

With the win, along with the other results from around the SEC, the Aggies are locked in as the No. 10 seed in next week's SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.

TOP AGGIE PERFORMERS
Jace LaViolette – 3-for-4, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 3 R, BB
Jack Moss – 3-for-5, 2B, 1 R
Justin Lamkin – 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 6 K, 3 BB
Chris Cortez – (W, 3-0) 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K
Evan Aschenbeck – (SV, 2) 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K

UP NEXT
The Aggies and Bulldogs will close out the series on Saturday at Dudy Noble Field with first pitch set for 2 p.m.

GAME SUMMARY
T1 | A&M 2, MSU 0
The Aggies struck early to take the lead, doing so in a loud way. A one-out single by Jack Moss put traffic on the bases and it was Jace LaViolette who cleared them with a laser-beam, two-run homer out to right-center field off Bulldog starter Cade Smith.

B1 | A&M 2, MSU 2
Mississippi State immediately answered to knot things back up with a pair of runs off of Aggie starter Justin Lamkin. After the lefty struck out David Mershon to open the inning, four straight Bulldogs reached base on a pair of walks and two singles. The first run came across on a bases-loaded walk to Kellum Clark and one batter later Slate Alford hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Hunter Hines for the second run of the inning.

T3 | A&M 3, MSU 2
After the Aggies flew into a double play following a leadoff double by Moss, LaViolette connected for the second time off Smith to put A&M back in front 3-2. With two outs in the inning he blasted a 2-2 pitch out to right-center field, his second homer of the night and his 17^th of the year, tying the Texas A&M freshman home run record.

B7 | A&M 3, MSU 3
A blooper to shallow right field cost the Aggies their lead in the home half of the seventh when a ball off the bat of Bulldog catcher Ross Highfill fell in for a bloop double. One batter later David Mershon lined a single back up the middle to plate Highfill and tie the game at 3-3.

B8 | MSU 4, A&M 3
The blooper worked against the Aggies again in the eighth, this time off the bat of Slate Alford who popped a ball up into no-man's land down the right field line that fell into fair territory and then kicked into the Aggie bullpen. He ended up on third base with a leadoff triple and two batters later Highfill delivered an RBI single to put MSU on top for the first time. The inning could have continued if not for a brilliant double play started by Hunter Haas at shortstop to end the inning.

T9 | A&M 6, MSU 4
After pitching a scoreless eighth, MSU reliever Aaron Nixon stayed on for the ninth and put the tying run on base when Moss singled with one out. Pinch runner Travis Chestnut then moved up to second base on a passed ball and Trevor Werner put runners on the corners with a sure single to right field. That brought LaViolette to the plate once again and the freshman deposited a 2-2 pitch from Nixon onto the right field concourse for the third time to push the Aggies ahead.

POSTGAME COMMENTS