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Updated 3:55 AM on Sunday, April 22, 2007

Cowboys lasso the Aggies

A&M never leads in loss

By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Staff Writer

Playing catch-up all game finally caught up with the 14th-ranked Texas A&M baseball team as 17th-ranked Oklahoma State claimed a 6-4 victory over the Aggies with some familiar ninth-inning heroics.

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Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Gabriel Chmielewski Texas A&M's Parker Dalton knocks down an off-target throw as Oklahoma State's Corey Brown steals second base.

Keanon Simon did the Cowboys' main damage with a two-out, two-run double over the head of center fielder Kyle Colligan for the game-winning hit.

OSU (30-10) held its second-place position in the Big 12 at 9-5, while A&M dropped to 32-9 overall and 9-7 in league, good for fourth. The finale of the series starts at 1 p.m. Sunday at Olsen Field.

For Simon, it was his first extra-base hit since April 1, a week before he was forced to the bench with a wrist injury. His last extra-base hit was a home run in the game he was hurt, a 10-5 victory over Baylor.

"He's our heart and soul, a four-year starter, tough Oklahoma kid and a leader since we got here four years ago," Oklahoma State coach Frank Anderson said. "He's our guy right there."

A&M tied the game on three different occasions, but despite out-hitting the Cowboys 11-8, the Aggies were unable to get the timely hit to take the lead.

"[The] disappointing thing is we didn't make them earn it," A&M coach Rob Childress said. "We walk the leadoff hitter [in the ninth] on five pitches and here they go with their offense. And we weren't able to put Simon away with two outs. We just didn't do enough in any area of the game today to win it."

Kyle Thebeau (2-3), who got the save Friday night, took the loss. The Aggies' 4-2 win Friday ended a string of three ninth-inning victories by the Cowboys over A&M.

Simon's double knocked in Jordy Mercer and Ty Wright, who singled to center with two outs.

Oklahoma State took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second and never trailed, though A&M tied the score at 2, 3 and 4 in the bottom of the fifth, seventh and eighth innings, respectively.

"That to me was the biggest thing, because you usually lose this game on the road right here," Anderson said of OSU never trailing. "When [A&M] keeps battling back and then we get in position to look pretty good and they answer right back, on the road you don't win that very often."

Justin Friend pitched the final 2 2/3 innings for the victory. He finished off the Aggies by striking out the Nos. 2 and 3 hitters, Ben Feltner and Blake Stouffer, to end the game.

Friend, who has thrown the second most innings for the Cowboys, is 5-2 with five saves.

"He's outstanding, a competitive strike thrower with a good breaking ball," Childress said. "He's their guy, just like [Kyle] Nicholson is ours."

Oklahoma State scored two runs in the second off starter David Newmann. OSU's Corey Brown walked, stole second and was brought home on Kendall Horner's double. Horner got thrown out trying to score on Ryan Flavell's single, but Wright stretched his hitting streak to 17 games with a single that drove home Flavell.

"Everything was up in the zone," Childress said of Newmann's start. "He didn't get it going, and I didn't know if he was into it. With runners on first and third, he's going from the windup with one out, so I don't know where he was coming from there. So we decided to make the change."

Childress sent out freshman Clayton Ehlert to start the third inning, and he responded, lasting five innings, three more than he had pitched this season before entering the game.

Ehlert gave up two runs but only one earned on a leadoff home run to Tyler Mach in the eighth.

"He came in and gave us a chance to get back in the game," Childress said, "but weren't able to get over the hump."

A&M tied it at 2 with a run in the second and one more in the fifth. Colligan doubled and scored on a Josh Stinson sacrifice fly. Ben Feltner, who has seven hits in the series through two games, tripled and sprinted home on Blake Stouffer's sacrifice fly to center. It was Stouffer's 50th RBI of the season.

OSU took a 3-2 lead on an unearned run in the sixth. Mangini singled, moved to third on a groundout and a foul out in which Stinson and Ehlert collided and scored on an error by Brodie Greene, who did well to field a ball off the bat of Mercer but short-hopped his throw to first.

Greene and right fielder Stouffer, who had made three errors in Friday's 4-2 Aggie win, switched positions from the night before and both made solid plays in the field early in the game Saturday.

A&M pulled even at 3-3 in the seventh on a Feltner single that brought home Parker Dalton, who had doubled.

And in the eighth, Luke Anders was hit by a pitch and pinch runner Brian Ruggiano scored on Greene's third hit of the game, a single up the middle, to tie the game at 4.

The Aggies' went without a stolen base for the first time in seven games. The wind was blowing out Saturday afternoon, and Childress said he didn't want to give away any outs on the basepaths.

Anderson also said OSU starter Oliver Odle has a knack for slowing down an opponent's running game.