By RICHARD CROOME

Eagle Staff Writer

Rick Zagone kept the Missouri Tigers in the game for 142 pitches. On his 143rd, Texas A&M's Kyle Colligan decided the outcome with an improbable home run.

Colligan's first career walk-off homer, a drive into a 15-20 mph wind, came on the first pitch of the 10th inning to give the No. 6 Aggies a 3-2 victory and their Big 12-record fifth straight series sweep.

"[Zagone] was trying to get ahead with a fastball, and throughout the course of the game he had been putting the fastball on the outside of the plate, but that time he put it straight down the middle," Colligan said of his seventh homer of the season. "I'm not going to tell y'all I did [go up thinking home run], I was just up there trying to get on base, maybe steal second and let Blake [Stouffer] or Dane [Carter] drive me in."

A&M (37-7, 18-3 Big 12) remains in first place in the league standings. No. 10 Missouri dropped to 29-14 overall while also falling to .500 (9-9) in the Big 12 for the first time this season.

The Tigers had come back to tie the game in the ninth and were within two feet of taking at least a two-run lead in the 10th, when a bases-loaded shot down the right-field line landed just foul.

"For us to keep it close and not fall apart when they tied it up says a lot about our group," said A&M head coach Rob Childress, who added he was somewhat surprised to see Zagone take the mound in the 10th. "[It was] either his fifth or sixth time to see him and K.C. [Colligan] is not one looking to work counts, looking for a walk. K.C. wants to get up and swing the bat and he definitely did that."

Zagone's (1-3) longest start of the season prior to Sunday was a seven-inning outing on Tuesday, but the Tigers' big lefty held the Aggies scoreless for seven innings after A&M played small ball for single runs in each of the first two innings.

"Rick was great. He was fine [in the 10th]," Missouri coach Tim Jamieson said. "We had chances to score some runs but we didn't take advantage.

"That was the difference in the game. We didn't get that."

Carter squeezed Colligan home in the first after he had singled, gone to second on a sacrifice by Stouffer and stole third.

Kevin Gonzalez, who had three hits Saturday, continued his hot hitting by driving home Greene with a sharply hit single to center.

The second-inning RBI gave the Aggies a run in nine straight innings against the Tigers, going back to their 15-0 victory on Saturday.

Meanwhile, A&M starting pitcher Clayton Ehlert added to the Tigers' frustration by posting the last six of 18 straight innings of shutout ball against Missouri.

"I was just pounding the strike zone with all my pitches. I got pretty good command of all of them and I got ground balls and some fly balls and let our defense work," Ehlert said. "I'm kind of a sinker pitcher so usually I see a lot of ground balls, but yeah, it's good to see the wind blowing in."

Missouri's Aaron Senne singled to open the seventh, and after Ehlert went to a 1-1 count on Dan Pietroburgo, Childress summoned Kyle Thebeau from the bullpen. The right-hander, who has pitched in 20 of A&M's 44 games this season, struck out Pietroburgo but gave up singles to Trevor Coleman and Andrew Thigpen, the last of which scored Senne. With runners on first and third, Thebeau struck out Kurt Calvert and got Kyle Mach to ground out.

The Aggies nearly ended it in the ninth, but Zagone worked out of a one-out, first-and-third jam with a strikeout of Brian Ruggiano and a groundout by Gonzalez after walking Greene.

Missouri loaded the bases in the 10th with a leadoff single by Mach, an intentional walk to Jacob Priday, who had struck out the four previous at-bats, and a hit batsman.

Starling struck out Pietroburgo for the third out moments after the foul ball that had everyone looking down the line and Starling pumping his fist when it landed foul.

NOTES -- The Aggies have not lost a conference game since March 23 at Oklahoma State. ... Blake Stouffer saw his career-best hit streak end at 19 games. ... The Aggies posted their first three-game sweep over the Tigers in Big 12 play and their first overall since 1990... Jose Duran now has the Aggies' longest hitting streak at 14 games. ... A&M travels to TCU on Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. game at Lupton Field. Scott Migl (2-2, 5.03 ERA) will get the start for A&M.

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