Aggies Dominate Oklahoma State in Series Opener

Texas A&M carried a no-hitter well into the fifth inning, and won the game in convincing fashion.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:21 pm

By: News On 6

Aggies Dominate Oklahoma State in Series Opener

Originally Published: Apr 22, 2011 10:42 PM CDT

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Oklahoma State bats never got going Friday thanks to a strong pitching performance, as the Cowboys dropped an 11-2 decision to the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station, Texas.

Texas A&M (27-11, 12-4) ace John Stilson (4-1) started the game off hot, retiring 14 consecutive batters to start the game, with Mark Ginther breaking up the bit at perfection with a two-out single in the top of the fifth. Stilson finished the complete-game effort giving up just four hits and two runs, neither earned, while striking out 12 batters.

Cowboys’ (28-10, 10-6) starter Mark Strong (3-1) picked up his first loss of the season, giving up six hits and four earned runs in his 3.1 innings of service for Oklahoma State.

Despite the large margin of victory, the Aggies did most of their work over two innings, scoring seven of their 11 runs in the second and fifth innings.

Leading 1-0, the Aggies started the bottom of the second with leadoff singles, advancing Adam Smith to third base. In the next at-bat, Kenny Jackson knocked a sacrifice fly to left field to bring Smith home and extend the lead to two runs. Back-to-back walks load the bases, and Tyler Naquin sends a sacrifice fly to left field to score Kevin Gonzalez and take a 3-0 lead. A Krey Brasten single in the next at bat drove Brandon Wood in to take a four-run advantage.

Three innings later, Gonzalez drew an intentional walk to load the bases and in the next at-bat Andrew Heck hit Jackson with a full count bringing Matt Juengel in to push the lead to 5-0. Two batters later, Charlie Curl hit a bases-clearing double down the left field line to give the Aggies a 8-0 advantage.

The Cowboys will try to knock off the Aggies at 2:05 p.m. Saturday and try to avoid their first series loss since starting conference play.