Aggies excited for shot at Razorbacks

Texas A&M shortstop Hunter Haas celebrates in the dugout after hitting a go-ahead three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning against LSU on Friday in the SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Ala. The Aggies won 5-4 and will play Arkansas at noon today in the semifinals.
(NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)
Texas A&M shortstop Hunter Haas celebrates in the dugout after hitting a go-ahead three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning against LSU on Friday in the SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Ala. The Aggies won 5-4 and will play Arkansas at noon today in the semifinals. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)


HOOVER, Ala. -- Texas A&M will get another shot at the University of Arkansas baseball team in today's SEC Tournament semifinal at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

The No. 4 Razorbacks (41-15) play the Aggies (35-24) for a fifth time this season -- and second time in four days -- when they meet at noon with the winner advancing to the SEC Tournament championship game on Sunday.

Arkansas is 4-0 against Texas A&M this season, including a three-game sweep in Fayetteville and a 6-5 victory in 11 innings on Wednesday in the Razorbacks' SEC Tournament opener.

The Aggies, the No. 10 seed in the tournament, stayed alive by beating No. 3-ranked LSU 5-4 on Friday, while the Razorbacks had the day off after beating the Tigers 5-4 on Thursday.

"We've been very fortunate to win the games against them this year," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said of the Aggies. "We've played some tight games with them, and made a couple big plays, pitched well against them.

"We're really familiar with each other. They're just a really good Division I baseball team."

Texas A&M Coach Jim Schlossnagle heaped praise on Van Horn and the Razorbacks, mentioning Peyton Holt, who has excelled as a starting second baseman in place of injured Peyton Stovall.

"Their program is at a point that we need to get Texas A&M to," Schlossnagle said. "Where you have guys go down and then someone like [second baseman Peyton] Holt, who hasn't played much the whole year, he has so much confidence in that jersey, and there's such a culture of winning and championship baseball that Coach Van Horn has built that it's just kind of a next-man-up mentality.

"We'll get there one day, and playing teams like that and playing teams like LSU, that's how you do it.

"The players look across the field and say, that's what we need to be, and as coaches we look and say, all right, we need to get to that level of recruiting.

"We'll get there, but Arkansas is the preeminent program to me in this league right now."

Texas A&M shortstop Hunter Haas hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning to give the Aggies a 5-3 lead over LSU and they held on to win after reliever Evan Aschenbeck allowed a run in the ninth inning, but left runners stranded at first and third when he retired Brayden Jobert on a popup.

"That team can win a national title that we just played," LSU Coach Jay Johnson said of the Aggies. "And they finished in 10th place in our league."

Schlossnagle didn't name a starting pitcher for today's game while Arkansas will start Brady Tygart.

"I don't know who we're pitching," Schlossnagle said. "Do we have pitchers to pitch? We've got some guys that haven't pitched in a while."

Haas said the Aggies are excited to take on Arkansas again.

"I personally have had a blast playing against them because they're such a great team and it's always a good competition," Haas said. "I expect it to be another really competitive game, and I'm looking forward to it."

Vanderbilt 9, Alabama 2

HOOVER, Ala. -- Freshman RJ Austin hit a two-run home run to finish off a five-run first inning and Vanderbilt rolled to a victory over Alabama on Friday night to advance to the semifinals.

The fourth-seeded Commodores (39-18), ranked sixth in the coaches poll, will play top-seeded and second-ranked Florida (44-13) today.

Enrique Bradfield Jr. led off the game with a walk, Diaz followed with a single and Bradfield scored on a double by Schreck. Diaz scored on a ground out by Parker Noland and Chris Maldonado singled in RJ Schreck. Austin followed with his two-run shot and Vanderbilt never looked back.

Freshman Colby Shelton hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the third to pull the ninth-seeded Crimson Tide (40-19) within 5-2.

Matthew Polk had a two-run single as Vanderbilt scored three runs in the fifth to take a six-run lead. Maldonado hit a solo homer in the ninth.

Devin Futrell (7-3) picked up the win in a start for the Commodores. He pitched 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks. Thomas Schulz pitched the final four innings to notch his first save of the season. He gave up a hit and a walk, striking out four.

Jacob McNairy (6-2) took the loss for Alabama. He worked 4 1/3 innings and surrendered 8 runs -- 7 earned -- on 9 hits and 4 walks.

Austin finished with three hits for Vanderbilt.


At a glance

SEC BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

at Hoover (Ala.) Metropolitan Stadium

NOTE All games televised on SEC Network, except for the championship game, which is on ESPN2

THURSDAY’S GAMES

Texas A&M 5, South Carolina 1

South Carolina eliminated

Alabama 7, Auburn 4

Auburn eliminated

Arkansas 5, LSU 4

Florida 6, Vanderbilt 3

FRIDAY’S GAMES

Texas A&M 5, LSU 4

LSU eliminated

Vanderbilt 9, Alabama 2

Alabama eliminated

TODAY’S SEMIFINALS

All times Central

GAME 15 Arkansas vs. Texas A&M, noon

GAME 16 Florida vs. Vanderbilt, 4 p.m.

SUNDAY’S CHAMPIONSHIP

Semifinal winners, 2 p.m.



Upcoming Events