College Station, TX-The Texas A & M Aggies put on offensive fireworks today at Blue Bell Park. They smacked three home runs, including two by cleanup hitter Hunter Melton (six RBI) and a fifth inning grand slam by Ronnie Gideon to break the game open at 11-3.
They tacked on one run in the sixth and three in the seventh inning for good measure, and that was more than enough to ensure their second win is as many days over the Hofstra Pride.
“Credit to the guys in front of me, Boomer (White) and Nick (Banks) for getting on base in front of me,” said Melton.
He noted that the Aggies’ players noticed that the Pride’s gameplan was to pitch backwards and throw many change ups and breaking balls early in the counts. They made the necessary adjustments and began looking for offspeed pitches.
It was really a tale of two games.
After falling behind 1-0 in the first inning, the Pride tied it up in the second inning on an opposite field home run by Ryan Karl, his first with the Pride after smacking five last year for Cornell.
The Pride took the lead on a two-run single by SS Brad Witkowski (2-for-4, three RBI) to score Teddy Cilis and Vito Friscia.
They had starting pitcher Corbin Martin on the ropes, who threw 59 pitches to get the first seven outs of the game. He settled down, however, and allowed his offense to get to work.
Hofstra’s starter Chris Weiss lasted three innings, allowing five ER on six hits and one walk.
He was relieved by sophomore Adam Heidenfelder who got through the fourth inning but ran into serious trouble in the fifth inning.
After allowing consecutive singles to Nick Banks and Melton, he hit Michael Barash to load the bases. Joel Davis drove in a run with an RBI single, and J.B. Moss was hit by a pitch to bring home another run. That brought up DH Ronnie Gideon who cranked a grand slam to left field that opened the game wide open.
The Pride scored in the eighth inning on an RBI double by Witkowski that scored Friscia, who had drawn his third walk of the game.
Hofstra was outhit 16-7 in the game.
Texas A&M Head Coach Rob Childress was complimentary of the Pride’s offensive attack.
“They have very good balance left and right in the lineup. You cannot come up for air against them, you have to make good pitches. They can change the game with one swing of the bat. They are one of the more physical lineups we’ve seen,” he added.
The two teams will close out their three-game set tomorrow at 12:00 (1:00 Eastern Time).
