Unheralded Pair put Aggies in the Catbird Seat
Jun 20, 2024 | Baseball
‘What will the Aggies do for pitching?’
Despite besting the Oregon Ducks by a combined margin of 10 runs in the two-game Super Regional sweep, the pitching was cause for concern for many entering the College World Series.
With Ryan Prager laboring through his most ineffective start of the season, going just 1.2 innings in the opener and Shane Sdao having his sophomore campaign shut down due to an injury after facing just three batters, the Maroon & White bullpen cobbled together 16.0 innings of relief as the offense powered through.
Heading to a College World Series loaded with the best offenses the SEC and ACC had to offer, how would the Maroon & White navigate through the minefield?
Enter a pair of pitchers who did not see action in that Super Regional, which saw nine Aggies toe the rubber. As a matter of fact, they combined for just 0.1 inning in Texas A&M’s three-game regional run.
Justin Lamkin and Josh Stewart both provided the Maroon & White with two outstanding performances propelling Texas A&M through their bracket and onto the College World Series Final with minimal taxing of the pitching staff.
With Sdao, the Aggies’ second-most effective starter, out of commission, head coach Jim Schlossnagle went with a 3-3-3 plan in the CWS opener against Florida. Lamkin was masterful in his first start since May 11, striking out six of the 10 batters he faced in 3.0 scoreless frames. Chris Cortez was a little wobbly in his 3.0 innings, yielding two runs, but the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Evan Aschenbeck held the Gators at bay in the 3-2 win.
“Lamkin was awesome,” Schlossnagle said. “It was tempting to run him back out there as well he was pitching. But we felt like if we let him go any longer – even if we won and then won the second game – we’d be creating a problem in the third game.”
In the Aggies’ second game, a 5-1 victory over Kentucky, it was Stewart’s turn to make an impact. Prager took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, but he was touched up for a pair of hits giving the Wildcats two runners in scoring position.
With Aschenbeck handling a heavy workload in the opener, A&M turned to Stewart to slam the door and then hopefully close out the game. The right-hander stepped up to the challenge with an electric three-pitch strikeout to end the threat in the seventh. He worked in and out of a jam in the eighth and gave up a cosmetic solo homer in the ninth, keeping the bullpen fresh.
“Josh did an incredible job,” Schlossnagle said. “First getting out of that spot in the seventh, as a relief pitcher your first job is always getting the first guy out and he did that. And then giving us length so we didn’t have to use Evan in that spot puts us in a great spot going forward.”
After Tennessee made quick work of Florida State in an earlier game Wednesday to advance to the CWS Final, it was imperative Texas A&M was not only efficient on the mound, but also walked away with the victory as playing Thursday would give the Volunteers a huge advantage.
The ‘other guys’ came to the forefront to accomplish the task as Texas A&M weaved its nation-leading 12th shutout of the season.
Lamkin got another start. This time he stymied the Gators over 5.0 innings to improve to 3-2 on the season. He scattered three hits and one walk while striking out nine – the most-ever for an Aggie in a College World Series game. The win marked the first for the sophomore since March 23 against Mississippi State.
“The big part of it was having self-confidence,” Lamkin said. “Knowing I can go out there and compete and play at this level. It’s about getting ahead of hitters and having true confidence in all my pitches.”
Lamkin’s effort was not without pitfalls. He allowed a leadoff double to Florida’s Colby Shelton in the second inning but diced up Luke Heyman and Ashton Wilson on three pitches piece before punching out Dale Thomas after an 11-pitch battle in which A&M pitching coach Max Weiner made a mound visit after the sixth foul ball.
The general observer might have thought some wizardry was offered up in the conversation, but for Lamkin it was the tension breaker that proved to be the difference.
“He didn’t talk about mechanics or a pitch or a location,” Lamkin said. “It was more of ‘how fun is this?’ and lighten the mood.”
Lamkin got in a jam again, partly of his own making in the third inning. After a one-out walk and single, the Gators had two on. Cade Kurland hit what appeared to be a tailor-made double play, but Lamkin instinctively got a glove on the ball, knocking it off its attended path toward Ali Camarillo. With the bases full, he recorded a strikeout and fly ball to put another goose egg on the board.
After Cortez uncharacteristically walked two batters on eight pitches coming out of the bullpen in sixth, it was Stewart’s time to shine again. He induced a groundout to first to give the Gators two runners in scoring position, but snuffed out the potential rally, fanning Heyman and Wilson.
“As a pitching staff we’ve been talking about selfless baseball,” Stewart said. “Anything we can do for the guy that pitched in front of us or anything we can do to set up the guy behind us. So it’s really been about that. Coming in for Chris (Cortez) after he walked two guys, it was about minimizing the damage as much as possible and that’s what we did.”
Before his day was done, Stewart struck out four of the seven batters he faced. He pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning and the only blemish on his line came with All-American Jac Caglianone leading off the eighth with a shift-beating single before Aschenbeck finished the game off with 2.0 scoreless frames.
The stats for Lamkin’s two College World Series outings are spectacular. He’s twirled 8.0 innings of shutout baseball, with just four hits and one walk while striking out 15.
“I envisioned this kind of effort from Lamkin because he’s so incredibly talented,” Stewart said. “I knew that if he had the self-confidence that he could have the outing he had on Saturday. And after seeing him do it Saturday, there was no doubt he could do it again. He’s been building on that confidence whether it be sim-games or bullpens. I saw both of us being able to have success, because wash away the past outings we’ve had it’s a new season.”
Stewart has tossed 4.1 innings, yielding just one run on three hits and one walk while striking out seven. But more importantly, he stranded two inherited runners in each contest, protecting sizeable leads and limiting calls to the bullpen.
While the pair was lightly used down the stretch heading into the College World Series, their outstanding efforts were not a surprise to the staff.
“I expect them to be great,” Weiner said. “I saw them being themselves. I saw them being true to who they are. They’ve been themselves. That’s what’s beautiful about it. Just because there are zeroes on the board doesn’t mean they had a superhuman performance. Justin and Josh and Evan and Chris ¬– they’re all superstars. When they’re just themselves, this is generally what happens. So kudos to them.”
The numbers for the entire pitching staff at the College World Series has been extraordinary. The A&M mound men have allowed just three runs on 16 hits and 10 walks while striking out 37 in 27.0 innings. The math comes out to a 1.00 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 3.70 walk-to-strikeout ratio. At the CWS opponents are batting 2-for-29 (.069) with runners in scoring position and 6-for-39 (.154) with runners on base.
Now, thanks in large part to a previously unheralded tandem Texas A&M enters the CWS Final with a rested pitching staff performing as well as it has all season.
