Texas A&M won a marathon, 15 inning game 7-6 over Davidson in game one of the College Station super regional.
This was Davidson’s first trip ever to the super regionals (also their first trip ever to the NCAA Tournament), while Texas A&M is in its third straight super regional.
Davidson may have been a little awe-struck in this one early as Texas A&M scored four runs in the first three innings. Aggie leadoff hitter Nick Choruby was a big part of that doubling in the first and scoring, and then driving in a pair in the second.
Cleanup hitter Hunter Coleman added two more for Texas A&M in the fifth with a 2-run home run, making the Aggie lead 6-0.
At that point it looked like this one was clearly over, but Davidson would not go quietly.
Texas A&M starter Brigham Hill had cruised through five innings, but a throwing error by Hill helped spark a 3-run sixth for Davidson on three hits.
They came right at Texas A&M again in the seventh with two more runs thanks to a couple of more errors. Cam Johnson came about four feet away from tying the game up with a 3-run home run, but it bounced off the top of the wall.
The Wildcats weren’t quite done yet as they scored the tying run in the ninth with a clutch single by Cam Johnson.
The game remained tied until the 15th inning. Texas A&M loaded the bases with no outs, but a couple of pop ups later had the Wildcats on the verge of escaping. But George Janca came through with the walk-off hit.
Both teams had several chances in extra innings. Davidson had a failed safety squeeze that would have given them the lead and possibly the win.
In the end, it was tremendous battle with a lot of heart shown from both teams.
Durin O’Linger, the Davidson ace, put together a gutsy performance settling down to give up six runs on 14 hits and no walks with 6 strikeouts over 7.2 innings.
Hill ended up allowing just 1 earned run in 6 innings on 4 hits and a walk with 6 strikeouts.
Mitchell Kilkinny tossed 5.2 scoreless innings in releif for Texas A&M.
These two teams will meet again on Saturday afternoon. Texas A&M will be looking to punch its ticket to the College World Series for the first time in six years.
