Mizzou had its chances of winning a Big 12 Championship come to an end on Thursday night as it fell to Texas A&M by a score of 7-2 at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City. With its victory, Texas A&M clinched the pool win and a spot in Sunday’s Big 12 Championship game.
Texas A&M starter Barret Loux retired the first 14 Mizzou batters he faced on Thursday as Missouri fell behind 4-0 before putting its only runs of the game on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The leadoff hitters for Texas A&M in both the second and third innings reached with base hits and, in both cases, would score. Joe Patterson in the second inning and Andrew Collazo in the third inning each singled and later crossed the plate to put the Aggies up 2-0.
Brodie Green led off the top of the sixth inning with his 11th home run of the season to extend the TAMU lead to three. Patterson followed with his second single of the game and again scored to make it a 4-0 advantage for Texas A&M.
Mizzou, whose first base runner came in the bottom of the fifth inning when freshman Eric Garcia delivered a two-out single, answered the Aggies two-run top of the sixth inning by scoring a pair of runs in the bottom half of the sixth. The first four MU batters to the plate in the inning all reached safely, with the fourth being senior Aaron Senne, who drove in a run with a single.
Sophomore Conner Mach added RBI single later in the sixth inning to cut the A&M lead in half at 4-2. However, the Aggies (38-19-1) responded by scoring a run in the next half inning, and then put two runs on the board in the top of the eighth.
Senne was 1-for-4 on the night and will enter Saturday’s season finale with a .408 batting average. That mark would tie the eighth best single season average in school history.
Sophomore Russell LaFleur had two hits in the game, with both being doubles. His first was in the fifth inning, just after Garcia had broken up Loux’s perfect game. LaFleur added his second double of the game in his next at-bat, coming in the bottom of the seventh.
Missouri (28-26) will close out its season on Saturday as it will take on Texas Tech at Bricktown Ballpark. Gametime is set for 9 a.m.
;
