A&M's offensive failings drop it into loser's bracket

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A&M drops the ball against Mizzou in 5-3 loss

BOX SCORE: LINK

The Aggies rode a crazy wave of momentum to their position in the Big 12 Tournament, winners of seven straight and carrying an aura of a team on the fast track. They then defeated Kansas with pure ease on Wednesday, continuing a surge that was aided especially by two ninth-inning comebacks that led to a sweep of Oklahoma State when the series could have easily been a 1-2 loss. Knowing that it would naturally, inevitably, come to a (hopefully brief) halt is part of the process.

But Saturday would have been a much better time.

Instead, Michael Wacha — after the Aggies did everything right to set him up in the winner's bracket — encountered problems against the Missouri lineup, something he's dealt with more than once in his career. He came out with a vengeance in the first inning, reaching into the mid-90s with his fastball and getting two strikeouts, but allowed a leadoff single in the second that reached third base and scored on his own wild pitch.

A&M tied it in the top of the fourth with a pair of singles by Jacob House and Troy Stein, a double steal and a sac fly, but Wacha served up an absolute bomb to Tigers stud Blake Brown two pitches into the bottom half of the inning. Then, in the fifth, Wacha surrendered three consecutive hits and miscommunicated with House on a pickoff move to first, sending a runner to third while the ball rolled into right field. A successive single would plate Mizzou's fourth run of the night.

Although a fifth would come later, that was all the Tigers would need, because the bigger onus on Thursday fell not on Wacha but on the offense. A group that had scored 42 runs in its past eight games (more than five runs a game, against a few good pitchers) took to the batter's box against Blake Holovach, a guy with a 1-4 record over his last seven starts and an ERA around two runs higher than it was when A&M last saw him at the end of March ... and managed eight scattered hits, only one of which was an extra-base knock. The Aggies loaded the bases for Mitchell Nau in the sixth and closed within one on his two-run single, chasing Holovach.

Still holding a 4-3 lead, Missouri pulled Jeff Emens out of the 'pen and it was all over but the crying. The Aggies' only baserunner after Emens relieved Holovach was Scott Arthur, reaching on an error to begin the seventh. A&M also struck out six times against Emens — not a strikeout guy by any means — including three times in the ninth, allowing him to cruise to the finish and seal off the final 3.2 innings.

The frustrating fact is that Holovach has had problems all year with issuing free passes, something the Aggies made little effort to take advantage of. Stein, in the sixth, earned A&M's only walk against Holovach after just the second three-ball count of the night against the lefty. Aggie hitters swung freely in the first, third and fifth, often falling into disadvantageous counts and striking out or making quick outs to allow him to make it into the sixth and strand a total of six runners.

The end result? A&M must face KU again tomorrow, to earn the right to face Mizzou again on Saturday, to earn the right to play the Tigers again later the same day to even advance to Sunday, where the opponent would likely be either an OU team that is rolling right now or a Baylor squad that swept the Ags in the regular season.

Not an impossible climb, mind you. But the road could've, and should've, been easier. Childress, as he often does, put it succinctly:

"If they come and take it from us, they come and take it from us," he stated. "But the things we did tonight ... I'll lose sleep over this one."

The Ags were likely still on the wrong side of the national seed bubble before this outcome, needing a bit more help from South Carolina and a clean slate through the Big 12 Tournament to feel comfortable about a shot at one of the eight spots. This loss combined with South Carolina's win against Auburn today might have removed that from consideration. Though, honestly, that might take a bit of pressure off these guys after their recent play had raised that very issue and added weight to each successive contest.

If there was a silver lining, it was the job that Jason Freeman and Estevan Uriegas did to extricate the Aggies from a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the bottom of the eighth. Kyle Martin stocked the bags full with two walks and a hit batter and Freeman came in to strike out Conner Mach; Childress then turned to Esty, who gave up a sac fly but got the necessary outs.

Nau also had himself a game in the DH role, driving in all three of the Aggies' runs. The spot was left vacant with Matt Juengel still forced to play third due to Blake Allemand's illness. Tyler Naquin picked up two hits after notching four on Wednesday.

At the end of the day, all that remains is the next game. The Aggies have Ross Stripling set to go tomorrow and the focus will be on beating Kansas a second time. For now, we have to look past the enormous stress this puts on the starting pitching situation in the event the Ags play two games on Saturday and make it to Sunday, and past the fact A&M will still host a regional.

It will have to step to the plate, starting tomorrow, and 'just do it.'