College Station, Texas – (February 17, 2019) – Texas A&M's Christian Roa and Kasey Kalich combined for 4.1 innings of hitless relief, as the Aggies edged out the Fordham Rams, 3-1, at Blue Bell Park in College Station, Texas.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 0-3, while Texas A&M is now 3-0.
The game began as a pitcher's duel between Fordham's
Alvin Melendez and Texas A&M's Jonathan Childress, as neither pitcher allowed much through the first three innings of the game. Each team had one scoring chance of that time.
Fordham had two batters reach in the first, but stranded runners at the corners, while in the fourth, the Aggies had runners at second and third with one out with Melendez getting a strikeout and reliever
Kyle Martin recording a ground out to keep the game at 0-0.
Jake Baker
The Rams then struck for the first run of the ballgame in the fifth.
Nick Labella reached base on a one-out single through the right side and moved to second on a wild pitch. One batter later,
Jake Baker looped a single into right center, which Labella was just able to beat the play at the plate for a 1-0 lead.
The Aggies responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame, getting a pair of sacrifice flies from Cam Blake and Will Frizzell.
Texas A&M added to its lead in the sixth inning, making it 3-1, on an RBI-single by Zach DeLoach, scoring Jonathan Ducoff from second.
That would be all the scoring in the game as, the Aggies' bullpen combination of Christian Roa and Kasey Kalich retired the final 13 Ram batters to finish out the game.
For Fordham, Martin (0-1) took the loss, allowing three runs over two innings of work, while Melendez went the first 3.2 innings allowing three hits with two strikeouts. The freshman duo of
Cory Wall and
Gabriel Karslo finished the game with a combined 2.1 innings of one-hit relief with three strikeouts.
The Rams are back in action on Friday, February 22
nd, when Fordham is at North Florida for a 6:00 PM game.
