Game 14 - Special

Dartmouth at Texas A&M
March 1 at Blue Bell Park in College Station, TX
SEC Network

In its season-opening series, Dartmouth led in, but lost each of the three games to the unbeaten Aggies. After Matt Parisi led off the first with a single and scored on a passed ball, the Big Green led 1-0, but southpaw Adam Frank gave it back in a hurry. Frank pitches a lot like Mike Hampton, unfortunately Sunday it was 2002 Rockies Hampton (2 IP, 6 ER, 6 BB).

The afternoon contest, which A&M won 10-4 to improve to 13-0, brought the return of SEC Network color man Mark Johnson. Today's not-so-secret word was "special" as Johnson said the word 14 times in nine innings. For Johnson, it's "been special to watch", or "he's been a special player to watch", or what we all just saw was "special!"

His inning-by-inning Special Count:

Game 6 - Penn State at Texas A&M

February 20 at Blue Bell Park, College Station, TX
SEC Network

A&M's pitching staff came into the night having thrown 17 consecutive scoreless innings and the Aggies added seven more innings to that Friday in a 9-3 victory.

A.J. Minter had some A.J. Burnett in him, walking five, but with consistent mid-90s fastballs he also struck out nine Nittany Lions in five innings to pick up his second win. The Aggies have been swinging the bats (averaging over 11 runs) and the top five in the order Friday went 9-for-18, led by No. 3 hitter Mitchell Nau (3-for-3, two doubles, hitting .583) and Nick Banks, who had four RBIs out of the five-hole.

SEC Network color man Mark Johnson is one of the greats of our time. This was my first time listening to him and he had a solid night.

Johnson's Top 5 phrases

1. "I give him a lot of credit" - (said seven times)
2. "My hat goes off to him" - (4)
3. "Come-atcha stuff" - (2)
4. "You gotta be able to laugh. You can't be the guy who goes under the dirt and says 'I'm terrible'"
5. "Wipe-up guy"

Last thing, courtesy of the SEC Network, which had this graphic on the screen before the bottom of the first:

What a lineup!

Nau and Michael Barash sharing the catching duties, though not as a platoon. Five infielders, two outfielders, and A&M still picked up a convincing victory.

I give them a lot of credit.