 "Photo: Jon Eilts")
AUSTIN - Texas A&M senior first baseman Luke Anders swept his foot across the bag in an attempt to turn a double play in the first inning of the Aggies' game against Texas Sunday in Austin.
In a play that would have ended the inning, Longhorns' junior designated hitter Russell Moldenhauer was called safe by first base umpire Dave Yeast as Anders tried to keep his foot on the bag for the out.
"I touched the bag twice," Anders said. "He saw that I didn't so he called him safe. I can't argue with him so I just went on and finished the rest of the inning. I thought I had it the first time. I touched it back to make sure. I dragged my foot right across the top of it."
The missed out opened the door for five unearned Texas runs in the inning which led to a 5-4 Longhorn win and eliminated A&M from the Big 12 regular season title race.
"Russell Moldenhauer is one of the slowest guys on their team without question," A&M Head Coach Rob Childress said. "Luke caught the ball; put his foot back down on the bag. It was pretty routine. He felt like he needed to go back and touch it again. He definitely had time to do that."
A&M fell to 33-18 overall and 14-10 in Big 12 conference play. With one conference series remaining against Oklahoma, the Aggies are tied for fourth place in the conference and have clinched a spot in the Big 12 tournament which starts May 20 in Oklahoma City.
Texas improved to 36-12-1 overall and 17-9-1 in conference play. With Oklahoma's 5-1 loss to Oklahoma State Sunday in the Bedlam Series, the Longhorns earned their fifth Big 12 regular season title.
Sophomore pitcher Barret Loux started the game on the mound for A&M. Loux has dealt with a minor elbow injury during the season but has started regularly since earning the win against Rice on April 14.
Loux did not pitch long in his first Big 12 start in two weeks. After the missed out on Moldenhauer, A&M sophomore third baseman Caleb Shofner committed two costly errors that led to the Longhorns' five runs.
Aggie senior reliever Kyle Thebeau replaced Loux after he gave up a single to Texas freshman left fielder Tim Maitland. Shofner recorded his second error after Thebeau's first pitch, which scored sophomore right fielder Kevin Keyes from third base. Longhorns' senior Michael Torres hit a grounder to short and Smith recorded an out at second base to end the inning.
A&M failed to answer in the first four innings as Texas freshman pitcher Taylor Jungmann forced the Aggies to go 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and strand six base runners.
After Loux was pulled, the A&M pitching staff combined to shutout the Longhorns in the final eight innings. Thebeau pitched five innings, giving up three hits. Senior pitcher Alex Wilson relieved Thebeau in the sixth inning, throwing 2.1 hitless innings.
"Thebeau and Wilson gave us an opportunity, as big an opportunity as you can ask for to come back and win this thing," Childress said. "It wasn't like we didn't have our chances. This team's got bigger and better things ahead of them. I guarantee you that."
The Aggies took the first chunk out of the Longhorns' lead in the fifth inning with three runs from the top three batters in the lineup. Junior second baseman Brodie Greene led the inning off with a single that bounced off Jungmann's glove.
"Any loss is tough, especially the situation we're in playing Texas," Greene said. "I felt like we competed real well this weekend and felt like it could have gone our way."
A&M picked up a fourth run in the seventh inning when Shofner hit a double to right field, scoring senior center fielder Kyle Colligan from second base.
Colligan had a chance to tie the game for the Aggies in the top of the ninth inning. On the sixth pitch he saw, Colligan hit a long fly ball to deep center field. Texas sophomore center fielder Connor Rowe put his back against the wall to record the first out of the inning. A&M failed to score the tying run in its following at bats, losing 5-4.
The Aggies were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 base runners in the game.
A&M completes the Big 12 regular season with a three-game series next weekend at Oklahoma. The games will determine the team's seeding in the Big 12 tournament.
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