Baseball continues to struggle in conference
By Turner Dawson
The Aggies continued their downward spiral to the bottom half of the Big 12 standings this week last week. The Aggies picked up an impressive win against Rice in the middle of the week but then dropped two of three against Oklahoma over the weekend at Olsen Field.
The Aggies have been inconsistent in every aspect of the game as of late. The pitching is outstanding one game, and atrocious the next. Aggie batters will be on a role and getting a lot of hits one game, and then they can’t get more than two hits the next game. If the Aggies hope to have any kind of postseason play they need to get things together immediately.
Clayton Elhert started out this week with his best performance all season. He has really been struggling this year to get back to the form that he has shown he is capable of in the past. But he had one of the best performances of his career against Rice as he went the full nine innings giving up just one run on four hits while walking two and striking out eight. It was a dominant performance and it was badly needed.
The Aggie batters still only managed seven hits but they were able to turn that into seven runs. The leadoff position continues to be a major issue for the Aggies as they continue to run different guys into that role and continue to see little to no production. Tyler Naquin got the nod this time and manage to get an RBI and a run scored but was still only 1 for 5.
So the Aggies looked pretty solid especially with the pitching against Rice and they carried that over into the first game against Oklahoma as well. Barrett Loux returned to his dominant ways as he went seven innings and gave up just one earned run on four hits with one walk and ten strikeouts. The key to Loux is always his control. Lately he has been giving up a lot of walks and has struggled. He only walked one in this one and was dominant. But Michael Wacha was even more impressive as he pitched the final two innings and struck out five of the six batters he faced and gave up no hits.
You pair that with the nine hits and six runs the Aggie batters produced, and it looks like the Aggies are starting to put things together again and look like the team that was in the top 25 just a few weeks ago. Tyler Naquin went two for five in the leadoff spot. And the Aggies looked to be piecing things together.
But then the Aggies went into the second game against Oklahoma and Ross Stripling actually pitched decently well but did give up the three runs in seven innings. Michael Wacha who was dominant the night before gave up two runs in three and two-thirds. And then Shane Minks gave up the game-winning run in the bottom of the thirteenth. The pitching was probably good enough to win a game, but it wasn’t as good as it was the first two games of the week.
Combine that with a few struggles at the plate, and the Aggies couldn’t pull out the win. Tyler Naquin again in the leadoff spot went 0 for 5. Joe Patterson went 0 for 4. Kenny Jackson went 0 for 3. Andrew Collazo went 1 for 6. The Aggies did manufacture 5 runs and it might have been good enough to win a game, but the pitching and hitting had a little bit of a down night at the same time.
Then on Sunday it all came apart. Clayton Ehlert got the start after his complete game gem earlier in the week and came in on Sunday and went just two innings giving up four runs before he was replaced. Then Nick Fleece gave up four runs in two and two-thirds. And then Estevan Uriegas gave up two runs in one and two-thirds. It was a rough night for the pitching.
Brodie Greene and Joe Patterson each went three for five at the plate, but neither had an RBI and the rest of the team managed just four hits. The Aggies lost that one 10-2.
The Aggies have now dropped to 7-10-1 in conference play this season and have dropped all the way down to 8th place in the conference of only ten baseball teams. This next week the Aggies hit the road for a three-game series with Nebraska in Lincoln. The Aggies desperately need to find some consistency both from their pitching and their hitting and pick up some much-needed wins this week. And this would be a good week to do it as Nebraska has both struggled this year and is a team the Aggies should beat.