Aggies Fall to UIC in Season Opener

The Texas Aggie Baseball squad opened the 2013 season with a 2-0 loss to the UIC Flames on Friday evening on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M Baseball squad opened the 2013 season with a 2-0 loss to the UIC Flames on Friday evening on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.

Despite getting saddled with the loss, Texas A&M's pitchers put in a strong performance. Kyle Martin (0-1) had a solid outing in his first career start. He allowed two unearned runs on five hits while striking out 10 over 6.2 innings. Entering the contest his career-highs were 5.0 innings pitched and five strikeouts. In his first college appearance, Matt Kent retired both batters he faced in 0.2 innings of work and Jason Freeman allowed one hit while striking out one in 1.2 innings.

Tomas Michelson (1-0) earned the win for the Flames. He worked 7.1 shutout innings, scattering four hits and two walks while striking out five. Ian Lewandowski retired all four batters he faced in 1.1 innings, including one strikeout. Alex Posey picked up the save by recording the last out of the game.

UIC scored both of its runs in the third inning. Joe Betcher hit a single to rightfield to start the inning, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Alex Jurich and advanced to third on a passed ball. John Coen was hit by a pitch to put runners at the corners. Alex De Larosa hit a ball into the gap in left centerfield where Krey Bratsen made a valiant dive but was unable to come up with the ball and Betcher scored on the RBI single. A fielding error by Blake Allemand on a grounder by Ryan Shober allowed the second run to score.

The Aggies put a runner in scoring position in three innings, but were unable to break the scoring seal. Jonathan Moroney got a leadoff infield single and moved to second on a one-out walk by Mikey Reynolds in the third inning, but Bratsen bounced into an inning ending double play. Troy Stein hit a two-out double in the fourth, but Cole Lankford hit a grounder to third to close out the frame. Moroney hit a leadoff double in the eighth, but a strikeout, groundout and pop foul down the leftfield cut the rally short.

Moroney went 2-for-3 with a double and Stein batted 2-for-4 with a double for the Aggies. De LaRosa paced the Flames going 2-for-4 with an RBI.

The Aggies and Flames return to action on Saturday with a 2:05 pm contest at Blue Bell Park.