Junior starting pitcher Jake Lemoine suffered his first loss of the season in Saturday’s game against the Aggies. | File Photo/The Cougar
According his manager, Texas A&M pitcher Grayson Long was as close to perfect as you could ask for. Through seven innings of work, the right-hander struck out 10, did not walk a single batter and allowed no runs on just three hits.
“I was just kind of cruising along. You just get in the zone and forget about everything,” Long said. “It’s not easy. I tried to stay within myself and do whatever I could to get guys out. I was focused more on the hitter than the runners, so that helped me out a lot.”
This pitching nirvana, which kept Houston off the board, took the pressure off of A&M’s offense, who powered their way over junior UH pitcher Jake Lemoine for six runs and eight hits. A&M head coach Rob Childress pointed out that even from the dugout, he and his team could notice that Long had, in baseball terms, the touch.
“I’d probably say that as he got midway through the second time through the lineup,” said Childress. “You could tell he was in pretty good shape. A lot of times guys get through a line up but the second time [the batters] make an adjustment. They weren’t able to do that against him tonight.”
Houston head coach Todd Whitting, whose team is now 8-7 and 0-2 in the Houston College Classic, gleaned what he could from the night.
“We landed on some balls tonight and had some good at bats,” said Whitting. “Texas A&M has a good team, Long was outstanding and every guy in their lineup gets in there and fights and battles and they came out here tonight trying to kick our butts.”
Houston batters scattered three hits before loading the bases in the ninth inning through a series of walks before A&M reliever Kyle Simonds got the final three outs to put the Aggies at 15-0 for the season and 3-0 in the Classic.
The rest of the A&M team was still in awe of Long’s performance after the game.
“Main thing was he was keeping the ball down. He’s a bulldog out there and did what he could for us to win,” said Aggie catcher Michael Barash, who homered in the fifth. “He makes me look good. I don’t have any part of that. He makes my job easy.”
