Tigers Fall In Competitive Midweek Series At Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas Southern Tigers baseball team lost 9-4 in their one-off game to the SEC’s Texas A&M Aggies on Tuesday evening despite a 3-for-4 batting performance from Avery Chatman.

The Tigers had chances early on with runners in scoring position in the second and a bases loaded situation on the third offensively but couldn’t punch runs home. TSU would fall into an early hole as they allowed the Aggie offense to build a 4-0 lead heading into the top of the fifth, punctuated by a Taylor Smith solo home run. 

Texas Southern began to claw their way back into the game during the top of the fifth when both third baseman Nic Garza and designated hitter Dean Salazar made RBI base hits, sending Chatman and the infielder home to trim Texas A&M’s lead to 4-2.

Unfortunately for the visitors, A&M scored four more runs, all of them happening in the bottom half of the fifth as a result of TSU starter Alex Olguin loading the bases with no outs on the board off a double and two fielding errors. Olguin’s sixth start of the year ended after four-plus innings as a result.

In the top of the seventh, the Tigers answered back with two runs with a Chatman and D’artagnan Padron score off a wild pitch and passed ball, respectively by the Aggies for an 8-4 score.

Later in the eighth, A&M made it 9-4 off another bases-loaded RBI walk.

In addition to Chatman’s seventh multi-hit performance and Salazar’s RBI play, the top of the TSU batting order featuring Justin Cooper, Garza, and two-time SWAC Co-Hitter of the Week Oscar Ponce each recorded one hit against A&M.

Olguin was relieved by Caleb DuBois, A.J. Winger, Jaiden Beck, and Garcia, who all combined for three hits, one run, three walks, and six strikeouts in four innings of bullpen action.

Following a three-week road trip, the Tigers will return home this weekend to MacGregor Park on Friday, April 23 and play Grambling State at 5 p.m. for the opening game of a three-game conference series.

The recent weather forecast projects rain on Friday which could impact the start of the series. Follow TSUSports.com on the Internet, @TSUSports on Twitter, @TXSOTigers on Instagram or TigerFans on Facebook for real-time updates.