By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — Nolan Kingham wasn’t at 100 percent for Texas’ winners’ bracket NCAA regional game Saturday against rival Texas A&M after battling a virus all week, but that situation turned out to be a blessing for the Longhorns’ ace pitcher.
Kingham’s illness likely kept him from being too emotional when he went to the mound against the Aggies, and he used that focus, calm and collectiveness to handcuff Texas A&M as the Longhorns rolled to an 8-3 win before a raucous capacity crowd of 7,046 at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
Texas (39-20) advances to play the winner of Sunday afternoon’s regional elimination game between the Aggies and Indiana. The latter beat Texas Southern, 6-0, earlier Saturday to earn another shot at Texas A&M, who handed the Hoosiers a 10-3 thrashing Friday in the tournament’s opening game.
The Longhorns now own a record of[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] 244-126-5 in the all-time baseball series against Texas A&M.
Texas coach David Pierce said his team fed off the energy of the home crowd, especially in the early going.
“We talked about it in our pregame meeting,” Pierce said about the crowd. “We expected the most electric crowd in the country tonight and when we got the early lead we were able to build off of that. We kept the crowd in the game the entire time.”
Kingham (8-3) allowed three runs, two of them earned, in 7-2/3 innings of work. He allowed nine hits and one walk while striking out eight.
“I feel a whole lot better winning,” Kingham said. “I’d say out of the whole week today was probably the best I’ve felt — yesterday was iffy. My body was fighting with me a little bit — just have to push through. It was ongoing on Thursday. I told Coach Pierce, ‘I don’t know about Friday.’ It’s pretty close, so he gave me an extra day, and it worked out.”
Josh Sawyer relieved in the eighth and retired the only batter he faced. Andy McGuire got the ninth and gave the Aggies (40-21) nothing.
Mitchell Kilkenny (8-5), the first of five Texas A&M pitchers, took the loss after surrendering five runs, all earned, on seven hits in four innings of work.
Kingham got a lot of help from his teammates, especially Big 12 Player of the Year and first-team All-America second baseman Kody Clemens and shortstop David Hamilton. Clemens pounded two home runs and drove in four, while Hamilton had three hits and scored twice.
The Longhorns had 15 hits in the game, and drew seven walks, leaving 16 runners on base. A few more timely hits by Texas and this game could have really gotten out of hand.
Texas made its statement early, striking in the first inning off Kilkenny with Clemens’ three-run home run over the right field fence.
“Gave us a three-run lead, and at that point I thought we did a great job at just continuing to play,” Pierce said. “Staying locked in, continuing to tack on and defense and pitching. Nolan (Kingham) was outstanding.”
Clemens was not shy about letting the Aggies know whose house they were playing in, staring into the Texas A&M dugout as he rounded third base as the Longhorn crowd went wild.
A&M coach Rob Childress said he understood Clemens’ glare into the Aggie dugout, saying after the game, “If you don’t like it, make a better pitch.”
The Aggies got a run back in the third inning when Allonte Wingate walked, advanced to second on an error by Texas shortstop David Hamilton, moved to third on a groundout and scored came across on Michael Hellman’s bunt single to third base, which was the first hit of the game for Texas A&M.
The Longhorns answered back immediately as DJ Petrinsky ripped a solo home run over the left field fence. Texas added another run in the inning when Zach Zubia was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded that pushed its lead to 5-1.
McKenzie’s sacrifice fly in the fifth plated Petrinsky and then Hamilton singled drove home Travis Shaw to expand the Longhorns’ lead to 7-1.
Clemens led off the sixth with his second home run of the game, making the score 8-1, but by then UT’s dominance of the contest had tempered any show of braggadocio that had appeared earlier in the game.
“What Kody’s doing right now is pretty remarkable,” Pierce said. “I think the thing that’s most impressive is that he is having quality at-bats with a great disciplined approach, and then he is getting great results.”
With 21 homers, Clemens surpassed Jeff Ontiveros for the second-most home runs in a single season, trailing only Kyle Russell’s 28 in 2007.
“Texas feeds off of him,” Childress said of Clemens. “He’s incredibly competitive, very good player, great approach. He’s a baseball player, he loves the moment. He did a great job for them tonight and was certainly the difference in the game.”
The Aggies scored again in the bottom of the sixth when Braden Shewmake singled in Hellman after the latter had doubled to lead off the inning. But Kingham retired the three ensuing batters to keep the Texas margin at 8-2 heading into the final three innings.
Texas A&M pushed across a final run in the eighth as Will Frizzell singled home Chris Andritsos to chase Kingham, but it was far too little, too late for the Aggies.
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