O-MA-HA! O-MA-HA!

Interference play in first, Savery HR spark Owls to CWS

By Mark Anderson

Matt Langwell did one of the best Houdini impressions in recent memory as he wiggled out of a bases load and no outs situation in the first inning, and Joe Savery’s solo homer in the second to put the Owls up by 2-0 sparked the Owls as they completed their quest for Omaha.

Langwell, who usually pounds the strike zone with pitches, did anything but early in the game. He struggled with his control early, walking three and throwing a wild pitch in for good measure. But after struggling early and getting out of the bases loaded jam, Langwell began to settle down and take command of the game.

Meanwhile, the Owls began to do a slow water drip torture on the Aggies. They never exploded and scored a bunch of runs at once, although they certainly had those opportunities. Instead, they added one run at a time to pad their lead.

In the fourth inning, the Owls scored a run as Lehmann led of the inning by getting hit by a pitch. Friday beat out a bunt attempt. Gayhart followed Friday by beating out another bunt attempt to load the bases with no outs. At this point, A & M made a pitching change, bringing in the hard-throwing Rivers. Henley brought Lehamnn across the plate by grounding into a tailor-made 4-6-3 double play, leaving Friday at third. But Savery grounded out to end the inning, and the Owls let opportunity to blow the game open pass them by.

The sixth inning was another opportunity missed as Dodson led off with a single, and Lehmann singled on a bunt to put runners on first and second with no outs. But Stinson’s pickoff from catcher to short caught Dodson by surprise for the first out. Friday then hot a line shot that was snagged by A & M second baseman Parker Daltopn, whose quick throw back to first beat Lehmann back to the bag. And just as quick as you could blink an eye, the Owls’ promising inning was over.

In the top of the seventh, however, the Owls pushed across another run when Tyler Henley tripled with one out and Joe Savery singled to drive him in anmd make the score 4-1 in favor of the Owls.

The Owls struck again in the eighth inning as well when Buenger reached first when Hicks committed his third error in two games. Seastrunk laid down a bunt that moved The Bellvile Banger to second, where he was replaced by pinch runner Derek Myers and Campbell came in to pitch for A & M. Myers took third on a wild pitch when Campell threw a wild pitch with Dodson at the plate. Dodson eventually walked, bringing up the qiuet leader of the offense over the weekend in the person of Danny Lehmann. Lehman attempted a safety squeeze, but fouled it off. Lehmann then laid down a perfect suicide squeeze to bring home Myers and make the score 5-1.

With Cole St. Clair on the mound, that lead seemed invincible. But Blake Stouffer drove a pitch from St. Clair over the left field wall, giving the Aggies the faintest of heartbeats, pulling within the score of 5-2.

But Cole St. Clair would give up only one other hit in his 2 2/3 innings of relief, and tin the ninth, the Aggies got a grounder to St. Clair, a fly ball to Lembeck in right, and then a pop-up to Savery to end the game and the series to send the Owls to Omaha for the sixth time in eleven years.