SEC Tournament: Texas A&M baseball uses clutch pitching, three

Seven pitches into his fifth start of the season, Texas A&M pitcher Will Johnston looked to be in trouble. He tweaked his left ankle while fielding a grounder from LSU left fielder Tre’ Morgan during the first inning, causing him to noticeably limp.

Nothing seems to be rattling this pitching staff, though, during their impressive run in the SEC Tournament.

Johnston recorded the first quality start of his career, helping the No. 10 seed Aggies (35-24) secure a 5-4 victory over the three-seed Tigers (43-15) in an elimination game Friday in Hoover, Ala. Going a career-high six innings on 92 pitches, Johnston surrendered only three runs on eight hits, one wild pitch and a balk while tying his career-high in strikeouts with seven.

Shortstop Hunter Haas also deserves credit for his game-winning home run in the seventh. Trailing 3-2 with one out, A&M took the lead on a three-run shot to left field from Haas that scored second baseman Austin Bost and catcher Max Kaufer. The Aggies now have nine victories when trailing after the sixth inning, which is the most in the country.

"The best. By far," A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle told the media after the game about how their pitching has looked recently. "Our starting pitching has been so erratic for a lot of reasons. Although I do think the experiences you go through are kind of like the rest of life. The experiences you go through, you learn from them and you make adjustments, both as a team and individually."

In four games at the SEC Tournament, the Aggies now have a combined 1.16 ERA among their starting pitchers and a 1.95 ERA overall. Three of the four starting pitchers – Troy Wansing (pitched eight scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over Tennessee), Justin Lamkin (pitched seven scoreless innings in a 5-0 victory over South Carolina) and Johnston – lasted at least six innings.

In the regular season, A&M struggled to find that level of quality and length from its pitching staff. The Aggies ranked No. 125 nationally in ERA (5.73) and had a pitcher last at least six innings only five times across 55 games.

Unlike Wansing and Lamkin, Johnston needed to work his way out of multiple jams. But the left-handed pitcher limited the damage every time, which helped keep A&M in the game and down only 3-1 through six innings.

Reliever Evan Aschenbeck (W, 8-1) also impressed, earning the win after giving up just one run on four hits and two wild pitches across three innings. LSU had one out with runners at the corners in the ninth, but second baseman Gavin Dugas struck out and third baseman Brayden Jobert fouled out to end the game.

"LSU feels like they brought their whole state with them," said Aschenbeck on the Tiger fan-dominated crowd. "But this is what we have been practicing for this whole season. And as a student-athlete, this is what you live for. Just bearing down, making pitches that were called because I know that I have full trust in whatever coach puts in the pitch call. And just making pitches is the biggest thing."

Aschenbeck, who has been this team's best reliever all season, likely will not make another appearance for the rest of the tournament. He threw 12 pitches across one inning against Tennessee on Tuesday and 60 vs. LSU.

"We need to get him some rest," Schlossnagle said. "We want to win this thing, but it would be really nice to shut him down until next weekend."

Through the first six innings, the Aggies were quiet offensively. Two of their three hits in 20 at-bats came on back-to-back doubles from outfielders Jordan Thompson and Ryan Targac to begin the second. Targac tied the game at 1-1 with his hit to right.

In the seventh, the A&M offense finally came alive. Targac worked a six-pitch walk to start the frame. Bost then advanced Targac to third on a double to left-center field. Designated hitter Brett Minnich sent Targac home on a sacrifice fly to left, cutting the deficit to 3-2. Kaufer walked before Haas homered against right-handed pitcher Sam Dutton, putting the Aggies ahead, 5-3.

"I struggled obviously at the beginning of the game, so I kept telling myself, just keep competing," Haas said. "Don't think about anything else, just keep competing and you are going to get a big one.

"The way the ball has been flying all week here in the morning, and in the afternoon, it has not been carrying. So I did not really know if it was out or not. I was kind of hustling out of the box, but obviously very excited to see it go over the fence."

A&M will play another elimination game and face two-seed Arkansas in a rematch at noon Saturday (TV: SEC Network). The winner of that game will advance to the single-elimination SEC Championship, which begins at 2 p.m. Sunday (TV: ESPN2).

The Aggies are 0-4 against the Razorbacks on the season and lost to them, 6-5, in 11 innings Wednesday. Arkansas then defeated LSU, 5-4, in its second game of the tournament Thursday to advance to the semifinals.

Schlossnagle did not disclose which pitcher he will start in that game when asked about the topic following the game.

"I don't know who we are pitching," Schlossnagle said. "Do we have pitchers to pitch? We've got some guys that have not pitched in a while. We are going to have to run some different arms out there, because I am feeling pretty confident that we're in the NCAA Tournament. So I don't want to hurt anybody or stretch anybody too much."