FORT WORTH -- Texas A&M may need to funnel some of the energy Joe Patterson used running around the bases Saturday to make it through 18 potential innings of baseball Sunday.

Patterson's 11th-inning, two-run homer and another magical performance in an elimination regional game by Kyle Thebeau gave the Aggies an 11-inning, 6-4 victory over Wright State on Saturday at Lupton Field on the TCU campus.

"I get made fun of every time I do something like that because I get so excited," Patterson said of his animated rounding of the bases. "I just get so excited and out of control."

By winning the first elimination game of the Fort Worth Regional, No. 2 seed A&M (37-23) ousted No. 4 seed Wright State (33-30) and gained the right to face Oregon State at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The winner of that game will return for a 7 p.m. contest against TCU, which beat Oregon State 13-1 in the late game Saturday. The Horned Frogs will have two opportunities to advance to the Super Regional round.

A&M lost 9-8 to Oregon State in the regional opener Friday.

"A whole lot of toughness shown on our part, to battle and fight our way back. We had 24 or 25 balls hit hard and nothing to show for it," A&M head coach Rob Childress said. "It would have been easy to say today's just not our day, and making the move to go to Kyle Thebeau in the fifth inning, he's definitely the reason we had an opportunity to win it late."

Thebeau (3-1) entered for starting pitcher Ross Hales and got out of a two-on, no out jam in the fifth with the Aggies already down 4-2. He ended up shutting out the Raiders for 6 2/3 innings -- his third-longest outing of the season -- on just five hits and no walks while striking out eight.

"If I'm going to turn in the stuff tomorrow, I'm going to turn it in with a guy I've been with four years and I trust," Childress said. "His senior year didn't start the way any of us anticipated, but he sure has finished the right way. The last four or five weeks have been really good for him."

Raider starter Alex Kaminsky nearly matched Thebeau, going 6 2/3 innings and only giving up one earned run. Wright State head coach Rob Cooper said he knew what he was going to get out of his ace, but that Thebeau made the difference.

"I'm probably going to pronounce this wrong and if I do I'm sorry, but Tebow or Tabow, that guy pitched his tail off," Cooper said.

Thebeau struck out Aaron Fields looking to end the game with runners on first and third.

The Aggies came two outs away from packing it in for the season. With the Aggies trailing 4-3 in the ninth, two seniors -- Luke Anders and Kyle Colligan -- set the table with singles. Once Anders was on second, Childress started turning the wheels, putting in Scott Arthur to run.

Anders and Colligan had hit 1-0 pitches against Raiders closer Michael Shum. Patterson made it three straight, driving in Nick Anders with a hard grounder up the middle.

"I thought that was special, that's what seniors do and I mean Patty got the big hit to tie the game, but the seniors gave him the opportunity to get that big hit for us," Childress said. "To string it out and give Thebeau a chance to go back out there and Patty to come back in the 11th, that's what seniors are supposed to do this time of year."

Shum then gave his team a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth by retiring Kevin Gonzalez and Dylan Petrich to keep the game tied.

Fields nearly did end it there, backing Petrich to the left-field fence with a fly ball for the third out.

"One thing that stood out to me was in the ninth inning when the guy hit the fly ball to left field. I thought, 'This is the way to end my senior year with a walk-off home run,'" Thebeau said. "This place is like a graveyard and anything that is up in the air it's really hard for it to get out, and I've seen balls that I swore were out before and that stayed in here."

Patterson's homer in the 11th was hit on a line, just over the head of center fielder Ryne Ashe and then the 400-foot sign to drive in Nick Anders. Anders was running for Brett Parsons, one of Chidress' late substitutions, who had singled with one out.

The Raiders had an opportunity in the 10th, but two inconceivable sequences sent the game to the 11th.

A&M shortstop Adam Smith had a throwing error on a slow bouncer toward second base, allowing Casey McGrew to reach with one out.

Quentin Cate then smashed a hard one-hopper that Smith blocked but did not glove. Smith took a couple of steps to retrieve the ball, pulled back on a throw to second because there was no play and then gunned it to first for the second out.

With a 1-2 count on the next batter, Childress replaced Petrich in left field with pitcher Alex Wilson because he wanted a stronger arm just in case a throw had to be made to home on a single. Ashe hit a blooper out to Wilson on the first pitch and Wilson ran it down near the foul line, with Smith and third baseman Caleb Shofner racing back.

"I know it was late in the at-bat, and I know he threw 80 pitches yesterday, but still he's our best option.," Childress said. "He works hard every day in batting practice shagging balls because he loves the game. Sure enough, you roll him out there and the ball will find you and it did and he made a nice play. I knew he was going to catch it, just watching him every day in BP I knew he was going to have a chance to catch it."

Cooper liked the unorthodox move.

"I thought it was a brilliant move by them. If a base hit gets through there they have a great arm there that maybe they can do it," Cooper said. "Then I was hoping it would backfire, but the guy made a heck of a play on it."

Wright State put the Aggies in a hole from the beginning.

R.J. Gundolff reached on an infield single that Smith did well just to stop. Fields sacrificed Gundolff to second. Jeff Mercer singled to right to drive in Gundolff, and McGrew followed with a chopper that went off the glove of Hales for a single.

Quentin Cate lined a single to right to plate Mercer. Hales got out of the inning with a double-play ball by Ashe.

A&M squared the game at 2-all in the third. Brooks Raley beat out a grounder to short. Anders then hit a routine fly ball to center that Ashe went back on, but before he realized he had broken the wrong way it landed a good 10 yards in front of him.

Kaminskey hit Patterson with a pitch to load the bases. Gonzalez followed up with a hard grounder just to the left of Fields, who misplayed the ball, allowing Raley and Anders to score.

Petrich nearly put the Aggies up by three, but for the second straight at-bat McGrew banged into the left-field fence to make a catch on a fly ball and retire his counterpart.

The Raiders scored single runs in the third and fourth. McGrew socked an opposite-field single to left to drive in Gundolff, and Ashe scored when No. 9 hitter Gerald Ogrine singled to right.

A&M got one back in the sixth on Shofner's second homer of the tournament and seventh of the season, a long fly over the center-field wall.

Childress said Clayton Ehlert and Barret Loux will be the starting pitchers for the Aggies on Sunday.

"It just comes down to how tough you are as a team," Childress said. "Is it that important to you to be tough enough to get through 18 innings of baseball in this heat?"

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NOTES -- A&M finished Saturday's game with relievers Nick Fleece at first base and Wilson in left field. Parsons, Nick Anders and Arthur were not available because they had been used and removed. ... Shofner went 11 for 14 against Wright State in the five games they played this season. ... It was the first NCAA tournament victory for Childress away from Olsen Field. A&M was 0-5 on the road under Childress coming in, with four of those losses at Rice. ... Shum, a freshman, lost seven games all year. Three were against A&M. ... A&M has won its last five regional games in which it has faced elimination. Three of the victories belong to Thebeau.