By RICHARD CROOME

Eagle Staff Writer

Texas A&M had the Missouri Tigers just where they wanted them, with a big lead late in the game.

Trailing 8-1 going into the bottom of the sixth, the Aggies scored in four straight innings for a 9-8 victory Friday night at Olsen Field.

The winning run came on a bases-loaded balk by Ryan Allen, scoring pinch runner Kirkland Rivers.

"I don't know to be honest with you," A&M coach Rob Childress said of the balk. "I think he flinched coming up like he didn't get the sign, kind of what happened to [A&M's] Carson [Middleton] earlier in the game.

The victory was an Aggie conference record 13th in a row and moved Big 12-leading A&M two games ahead of idle Nebraska, which was rained out in Waco. No. 6 A&M is 35-7 overall and 16-3 in the Big 12.

No. 10 Missouri dropped to 29-12 and 9-7.

It was the second straight Big 12 game the Aggies had trailed by at least six runs and came back to win. A&M was down 12-6 to Baylor in the ninth on Sunday and won 13-12 in 11 innings.

"Turn out the lights, the party's over. I can't say enough about the toughness of this group," A&M coach Rob Childress said. "They keep coming and make you get all 27 outs. Tonight's a perfect example, and last Sunday was as well. There's no quit in this group."

The Aggies have come from behind to win in 11 of their 16 Big 12 games.

Brodie Greene, who had doubled and scored in the eighth on a wild pitch just before a 6-minute lightning delay, was at the plate when the winning run scored.

"It looked like he flinched just a tad bit. I guess the umpire saw it better than I did," Greene said. "I was looking forward to getting the big hit, but we'll take it."

The Aggies tied it on a double by Brian Ruggiano that scored Keith McInnerney, who was running for Luke Anders after he had opened the bottom of the ninth with a single to center off Nick Tepasch (1-2).

After leaving the bases loaded in the sixth, the Aggies started their latest comeback with a four in the seventh.

Walks to Blake Stouffer and Dane Carter set the table for Jose Duran, who doubled over center fielder Kurt Calvert's head for the first run. It was starter Aaron Crow's 117th and final pitch of the night.

"When you're down 8-1 against Crow (9-0), you feel like the game is over," Childress said. "I thought the turning point of the game was in the bottom of the sixth inning. We only scored one run but we forced him to throw 30 pitches, and that's what got him out of the game and allowed us to come back against some of their relievers and get some big hits."

Lefty Rick Zagone walked Luke Anders to load the bases, but then got Darby Brown to ground into a double play. Carter scored on the grounder to short and the Tigers turned to Scooter Hicks.

"Zagone started on Tuesday so he didn't have much," Jamieson said. "We wanted to use him in a crucial situation, and Scooter's been good all year."

Hicks, who pitched two innings for the Aggies in 2006, got ahead of Brian Ruggiano 0-2 and then after a couple of foul balls, the junior clubbed a pitch off the wall behind the center-field fence to close the margin to 8-6.

"A lot of my hits this year have come with two strikes. Before I get two strikes I have a tendency to get big with my swing," said Ruggiano. "Once I get two strikes I tend to shorten up quite a bit and I tried to get the barrel on the ball and that's what I was able to do on both of those at bats."

Ruggiano has six homers this season, and his three hits raised his batting average to .364.

Kyle Thebeau (4-2) entered in the eighth and got the win, pitching two perfect innings.

Michael Heard's 1 1/3 innings were crucial to the Aggie rally. He didn't allow a hit or a walk and left the game with the score 8-5 after entering down 8-1.

Missouri was robbed in the second when Aggie left fielder Ben Feltner took a grand slam away from Greg Folgia by reaching above the fence and pulling the ball back in play. He ran confidently toward the dugout and then showed everybody the ball by rolling it to the mound when he neared third base.

The Tigers took the lead in fourth on an opposite-field double by Ryan Lollis that drove in Calvert and Kyle Mach. Calvert beat out an infield single and Mach singled down to left to set the table. Mach appeared to have a double but had to go back to first after running into first baseman Anders. Jamieson asked for interference, but none of the umpires saw the play develop.

After the Lollis double, Childress went out and talked to starter Brooks Raley, but Trevor Coleman spoiled whatever Childress said by drilling the first pitch back up the middle to extend the margin to 3-1.

Missouri went up 4-1 in the fifth but threw away a chance for another run. Aaron Senne singled to left and was doubled home by Dan Pietroburgo, who was the last batter faced by Raley. It was Raley's shortest outing of the season.

Andre Thigpen, facing Carson Middleton, sacrificed Pietroburgo to third. Calvert hit a fly ball to Ben Feltner in left, and Pietroburgo took a few steps and stopped. Mach then hit a weak fly to right to end the inning.

The Tigers had loaded the bases on a infield single by Pietroburgo, a double down the left-field line and a walk to Kurt Calvert.

Tigers right fielder Ryan Lollis made a diving catch of Feltner with one out and runners on first and third in the second. Darby Brown, who had doubled and moved to third on a Brian Ruggiano single, scored on the play.

Crow worked out of his own bases-loaded situation in the sixth, striking out leadoff hitter Kyle Colligan looking.

NOTES -- Duran has multiple hits in 14 of the 19 Aggie conference games. ... Game 2 of the series is at 2 p.m. Saturday.

• Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.