News and notes from future Bombers around the country…
Texas A&M’s Darby Brown continues to make an impact in his first season with the Aggies. A&M opened Big 12 conference play with a three-game set last weekend against Kansas, and Brown figured prominently in both wins. On Friday, he cracked his first home run of the season, a solo shot in the fifth that answered a Jayhawk run in the top of the frame and sent the Aggies on to victory. After going 2-for-6 in A&M’s marathon loss on Saturday, Brown delivered in dramatic fashion on Sunday. With the score tied at nine in the bottom of the ninth, Brown stepped to the plate with one out and a runner on second base. He delivered his first hit of the afternoon, a line single to left that plated Blake Stouffer for the winning run. For the series, Brown went an impressive 5-for-13 with 4 RBI, but his work was hardly done. The Aggies visited Rice on Tuesday night to take on an Owls squad ranked 8th in the country, and Brown led the charge in A&M’s 10-9 extra-inning victory. The Aggie first baseman went 3-for-6 with a team-high 4 RBI. His two-run single in the first inning helped A&M quickly gain the upper hand, and his base hit in the sixth was part of a four-run rally to regain the lead. For the season, Brown’s average has now climbed to .366, and his 22 RBI is second on the team.
Brown’s heroics on Sunday were aided in part by Dane Carter, who entered the game for Texas A&M as a pinch-hitter in the eighth. With the Aggies down 9-6, Carter delivered a one-out single, then came around to score in a three-run inning that tied the score.
Texas-Tyler’s Joseph Towns continues to put on a hitting clinic, helping the Patriots push their record to 19-0. After taking a pitch to the head last weekend, Towns returned on Monday with a vengeance, driving in six runs with two homers and a double en route to a 3-for-5 day. Three more hits in two games to close out spring break “dropped” his average for the season to an amazing .485. In fact, the only game this season in which Towns didn’t record a hit was last weekend, when he was struck in the head in his first and only plate appearance and left the game for precautionary reasons.
Will Courier and his Duke Blue Devils faced off against highly-ranked Clemson, just as Pacific’s Hunter Carnevale had done earlier this season. Currier fared better than his future teammate, hurling two perfect innings against the country’s sixth-ranked team on Friday night. Speaking of Carnevale, the freshman struggled over the weekend against San Jose State. The righthander is still tied for the team lead with 2 wins and boasts the rotation’s best ERA at 3.96.