RSS
|
Mobile
|
Daily Emails
|
We Twitter
| Make us your home page
Andrew Nettune had a quiet spring at Texas A&M, but the catcher's summer is sizzling after Wednesday night's two grand slams that carried the East Texas PumpJacks to a 13-7 victory over the Brazos Valley Bombers.
Nettune became the first player in the six-year history of the Texas Collegiate League to hit a pair of grand slams.
Nettune redshirted at A&M this season as a freshman and didn't have a hit in his first 12 TCL at-bats, striking out six times. He didn't play in Tuesday night's 3-2 loss to the Bombers, so he decided to take extra hitting Wednesday morning at Olsen Field. East Texas relief pitcher Steven Martin and infielder Austin Roff accompanied Nettune.
"I worked a little bit and tried to figure it out, and I thought I figured it out," Nettune said.
He started his night with an infield hit to deep shortstop to cap a three-run first inning.
"That felt real good," said Nettune, who played at All Saints High School in Tyler. "I kept my hands through the ball. I'd been having a little trouble hitting to right field, so I was working on hitting to right field."
That paid off as Nettune's first grand slam cleared the right-field fence, traveling about 340 feet to give East Texas a 7-0 lead. It was a change-up on the outer part of the plate that he waited on.
He said it had been so long since he'd hit a home run in a real game, that he almost passed the baserunner in front of him.
"That was everything," Nettune said. "My confidence went way up. That's all I needed."
It showed his next time up when he blasted a 3-1 fastball over the fence in left-center field.
He wasn't able to add to his RBI total in his last two at-bats. Nettune reached in the sixth when his hard-hit grounder went through the legs of third baseman Trey Sperring, chasing home East Texas' last run.
Bombers' relief pitcher Jordan Chambless, who will be a senior at A&M, smiled at his Aggie teammate in the eighth. Nettune said he smiled back, but Chambless won the battle as Nettune lined out to center field.
Nettune helped make a winner out of Martin, who also redshirted at A&M this past season as a freshman.
The 6-foot-6, 235-pound right-hander had a 4-inch screw put in his pitching elbow to fix a stress fracture last fall. He had struggled in his previous two TCL appearances with eight walks in 2 1/3 innings, but he looked sharp against the Bombers.
PumpJacks starter Justin Fowler had a 12-6 lead, but couldn't get the last out of the fifth inning to qualify for the victory.
Martin got the last out of the fifth inning, then added two scoreless innings, striking out five.
"I relied on my fastball and kept it down in the zone," said Martin, who also pitched ahead in the count.
That's something Brazos Valley starter Cody Springer didn't do. Springer needed only three pitches for two outs to start the game. He walked the next three hitters. Then two passed balls, an error and Nettune's hit by scored the three runs.
The Bombers (4-4) wasted a 17-hit attack in which every starter but one had a hit. The Bombers ended their six-game home stand by splitting its fourth straight series to open the season by winning the first game, but losing the second.
The Bombers cut East Texas' lead in half with two runs in the fourth and four in the fourth. But the unearned run East Texas added in the sixth stopped the Bombers' momentum.
The PumpJacks (2-6), an expansion team had only 10 hits, but six of the runs they scored reached via walks or errors.
East Texas 304 501 000 -- 13 10 2
Brazos Valley 000 240 010 -- 7 17 4
Justin Fowler, Steven Martin (5), Daniel Nottebart (8) and Andrew Nettune. Cody Springer, Garrett Duff (3), Jason Zylstra (6), Jordan Chambless (7), Trey Sperring (9) and Brian Nelson. W -- Martin, 1-0. L -- Springer, 0-1.
HR --Nettune 2 (2nd).
Leading hitters -- (ET) Nettune 3 for 5, 9 RBIs; J.D. Dunn 2 for 3. (BV) Nick Anders 2 for 5, RBI; Tyler Huelsing 3 for 5, 3 RBIs; Jake Sharrock 2 for 5, RBI; Zach Grichor 3 for 5; Todd Cunningham 3 for 6; Cliff Vaughn 2 for 4, 2 RBIs
Att: 869 (614 in the park).
