OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Texas A&M baseball team was not ready to quit on the 2009 season Friday at Bricktown Ballpark.
In their second game of the Big 12 Championship Tournament in Oklahoma City, the Aggies battled for four hours against Oklahoma to stay alive in the hunt for the conference tournament title, winning 17-15.
"Offensively tonight was what we've been asking for," A&M Head Coach Rob Childress. "It's not doing anything different; not changing the physical side of it, it's all the approach."
The Sooners opened the game with a six-run first inning. It seemed like the game was going to be an Oklahoma rout after a defensive miscommunication caused an infield popup to land uncaught.
Trailing 6-0, the Aggies showed a different offensive approach against a team that swept them in the regular season. A&M batted 11-for-22 with runners in scoring position in the game, a stark difference from the 0-for-16 with RISP it batted against the Sooners in the three-game regular season series.
"I wasn't worried at all," junior designated hitter Joe Patterson said. "We had just been hitting in the cage the last two days and talking about our approach. I knew we were going to put up some runs today."
Patterson was 4-for-5 and hit four RBIs against Oklahoma. He had his first two RBIs in the first inning when he drove home junior second baseman Brodie Greene and sophomore pitcher Brooks Raley. A&M cut into the Sooners lead with five runs in the first inning.
Oklahoma answered with two runs in the second inning, ultimately taking a 10-8 lead by the fifth inning.
Momentum changed in the bottom of the sixth inning when the Aggies scored four runs to take the lead. Patterson earned his fourth RBI with a double to right center field, scoring senior first baseman Luke Anders from second base and advancing senior center fielder Kyle Colligan to third base.
Colligan scored on sophomore catcher Kevin Gonzalez's double to left field, tying the game 10-10. Patterson later scored from third on a fielder's choice by Shofner and Shofner scored on a double by junior Brett Parsons, giving A&M a 12-10 lead.
The Aggies picked up another run in the eighth inning and four more in the ninth inning.
Raley started the game on the mound for the Aggies, but after the rough first inning was pulled for junior Alex Wilson. Wilson, who started the season as a weekend starter, pitched five innings in relief, giving up three runs and four hits.
Freshman southpaw Estevan Uriegas was called out of the bullpen to start the seventh inning to face the left-handed batters in the Oklahoma lineup. Uriegas struck out the side and gave up a hit batter in the inning, then faced the two left-handed batters in the eighth inning before Childress put in sophomore closer Nick Fleece.
Fleece finished the inning, but struggled to maintain the Aggies 17-10 lead in the ninth inning.
Fleece gave up five runs after walking three batters, hitting one, allowing a base runner to reach first on a wild pitch strike out, and giving up a double. With one out and the bases loaded, Childress went to junior reliever Travis Starling.
Starling was A&M's closer in 2008 and was one of the most dominant in the nation. He struggled in 2009 before losing the role to Fleece early in the season.
"He's the one guy that's been in that spot," Childress said. "I didn't want to put [Ross] Stripling in that spot or [Kyle] Thebeau in that spot. Travis Starling has been in that spot more than anybody we've got down there and he came in with enough pressure as you can have."
On Starling's fifth pitch, Sooners senior second baseman Matt Harughty grounded into a double play to end the game with the Aggies leading 17-15.
A&M lost to Missouri Wednesday in its first tournament game. In order to advance to the championship game, the Aggies needed to win their final two pool play games and the Tigers had to lose theirs. They got some help from Texas Tech when the Red Raiders beat Missouri in the first game of the day.
Oklahoma plays Missouri today before A&M plays Tech to end pool play in the tournament.
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