COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies hammered the Northern Kentucky Norse, 8-1, on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park in the series opener on Friday night for their fifth win in a row.
The Aggies (10-4) used one big inning to pull ahead of the Norse (8-5) with eight runs in the second inning and pitchers Nathan Dettmer and Ty Sexton made that stand up.
The eight runs in the second frame accounted for the second-highest single-inning scoring output of the season for the Aggies and was highlighted by hits from Ryan Targac, Jordan Thompson, Jace LaViolette, JD Gregson and Austin Bost.
That was more than enough for Dettmer to earn his first win of the season, shutting out NKU and tying his season high with eight strikeouts in 6.0 innings of work, the longest outing by an Aggie in 2023.
Sexton earned his first career save working the final 3.0 innings allowing one run on four hits.
TOP AGGIE PERFORMERS
Nathan Dettmer (W, 1-1) – 6.0 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 3 BB, 8 K
Kaeden Kent – 2-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI
Ryan Targac – 1-for-3, 1 H, 1 R, 2 RBI
Austin Bost – 1-for-2, 2 R, RBI
GAME SUMMARY
B2| TAMU 8, NKU 0
Austin Bost walked to lead off the inning and scored on a Ryan Targac double. Back-to-back singles hit by Kaeden Kent and Jordan Thompson plated Targac and put Aggies on the corners. Jace LaViolette doubled to center field to bring Kent home and advance Thompson to third and he scored on a JD Gregson single and LaViolette was called out on a hustle play to third. Hunter Haas singled and bases were loaded on a Jack Moss base on balls. Bost came back up to bat and picked up an RBI on a single and kept the bases loaded. Targac was hit by a pitch and plated another Ag. Kent singled to left field to score Bost and Moss.
T8| TAMU 8, NKU 1
Noah Fisher hit a leadoff single to left field, advanced to second off a single by Liam McFadden-Ackman and went to third on a Colton Kucera fly out. Fisher made it home on a sacrifice fly hit by Jayden Wakeham.
UP NEXT
The Aggies look to win the series against Northern Kentucky on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be aired on SEC Network+.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Jim Schlossnagle
On Dettmer’s effort today...
“I thought [Nathan] Dettmer did a really nice job. He attacked the strike zone early. I thought it was a good response to how he pitched last week against Louisville. It’s certainly something he can take some confidence from going into SEC play starting next week.”
Junior RHP Nathan Dettmer
On his performance today…
“It does a lot for confidence. It sets the standard. I felt like I could have done even better, but that’s the standard now. Now every time, I try to replicate that, or better. Nothing less.”
