By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Jackson Appel smashed his third home run of the game with one out in the bottom of the ninth Tuesday night, lifting the third-ranked Texas A&M Aggies to a 6-5 victory over the UTSA Roadrunners.

All three of his homers were hit to the opposite field.

“Wind must have been howling out to left (field) tonight,” joked Appel, as he talked in the postgame on the Texas A&M radio broadcast.

The Aggies struggled for much of the night defensively, making four errors, including two in UTSA’s four-run second inning. The pitching also faltered with three walks and three other batters hit by pitch.

But Appel, a senior catcher from Houston Memorial, helped make up for it with a solo home run in the third, a two-run shot in the fifth and another solo blast in the ninth. The Aggies bullpen also got tough at the end, with Christopher Cortez pitching the last four innings, all scoreless, while striking out seven.

Early on, the Roadrunners stunned the Aggies by putting up four runs in the second inning.

Isaac Morton opened the inning by walking UTSA’s Broc Parmer and James Taussig. With two aboard, UTSA’s Lorenzo Morresi bunted. Morton fielded it and threw wildly for an error that allowed one run to score.

The good fortune for UTSA continued when Hector Rodriguez stroked an infield single. A throwing error by A&M second baseman Travis Chestnut allowed two more runs to cross the plate.

At that point, the Aggies brought in Zane Badmaev to pitch, and he retired Zane Spinn on a swinging third strike. A&M continued its uneven play when Badmaev hit Caleb Hill with a pitch, putting runners at first and second.

One out later, Alex Olivo’s RBI single scored Rodriguez, making it a 4-0 ballgame.

Records

UTSA 19-14
Texas A&M 29-4

Coming up

UTSA is set to play a three-game American Athletic Conference series at Memphis. Friday at 6 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m.; Sunday at 1 p.m.