Texas A&M clips Northwestern St - KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana

[Information provided by Northwestern St]

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – A suicide-squeeze bunt by Daniel Mengden to score Mikey Reynolds gave Texas A&M the lead and the Aggie bullpen pitched four scoreless innings to grab the 2-1 win over the Northwestern State baseball team Wednesday afternoon.

Reynolds led off the Aggie (7-3) fifth with a single to right center field and advanced to second on a passed ball. Kyle Bratsen sent him to third base on a sacrifice bunt before Mengden scored him on the squeeze play.

Texas A&M's bullpen sealed the victory on four innings pitched with three hits, one walk, and two strikeouts. Northwestern State dropped to 5-4 on the season.

The Aggies struck first in the fourth when Troy Stein led off the inning with a triple down the left-field line and scored after Blake Allemand hit a ball to the shortstop deep enough to score him. 

Northwestern State answered in the fifth when Nick Purdy singled up the middle to score Toby Cornejo who reached on a bunt-single to the pitcher. 

Cody Butler started on the mound for the Demons and pitched for innings and allowed four hits and a run.  A.J. Funk (0-1) took the loss on one inning with three hits, one walk, and a run.

"Our starting pitching was there, but we had no timely hitting," said head coach Lane Burroughs. "We just have to get tougher and learn how to win.  We're not there yet."

NSU left 11 runners on base, six in scoring position, but the Aggies left 12 on base with eight in scoring position.  NSU had a runner left on in every inning.

In the eighth inning, the Demons had a chance to put a man on first and second with no out.  Zack Costa was put in to pinch run for Matt Baca before Edwin Gomez hit a ball to Reynolds at shortstop that left Reynolds no choice but to tag the Costa, but the ball fell out of his glove.

Costa thought he was out so he started toward the dugout when Reynolds applied the tag that forced him out. TAMU got outs on the next two batters.

Andrew Adams and Cameron Brewer worked a combined three relief innings pitched with only one hit.

Aggie pitcher Jason Freeman (1-0) earned the win on 1.1 innings pitched.

Todd Wallace, Cornejo, and Watson each had two hits for the Demons.  Wallace had a double in the second inning.

Northwestern State will continue its road swing with a three-game, weekend series with Missouri State in Conway, Ark. at 1 o'clock. The game was moved from Springfield, Mo. to Conway due to inclement weather.

Northwestern State 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0   1 9 2

Texas A&M 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 X   2 8 1

NSU: Funk (5), Adams (6), Shaftner (8). TAMU: Kent (5), Freeman (5), Minter (7), Vinson (7), Brashear (8), Jester (8) W - Freeman (1-0). L- Funk (0-1).

Leaders: NSU- Todd Wallace (2-4, 2B); Toby Cornejo (2-4, run); Will Watson (2-4). TAMU: Reynolds (2-5, run); Mengden (1-3, RBI)

T- 3:10

Records NSU (5-4). TAMU (7-3)