COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – It took four games for Texas A&M veteran reliever and recent recipient of the No. 12 jersey, Josh Stewart, to take the mound at Blue Bell Park.
However, the Aggies had yet to find themselves in the late-game, high-leverage situation that will be Stewart’s calling card this season.
Friday, Stewart closed out a series-opening pitchers’ duel to help secure a 1-0 No. 25 Aggies win over Penn in his first action of the season.
“That’s what Stewart’s job is,” head coach Michael Earley said after the walk-off win. “I talked about wanting to get him in or when you get him in — like, we don’t have time for that, right? That is his job and he’s pitched before, it’s just been a while and I’m super comfortable putting him in and he did his job.”
By the time the ninth inning rolled around, neither team had found a way to bring a run home. After Penn shortstop Davis Baker, a Dallas native, led off the frame with a single, Earley took the ball from pitcher Ethan Darden and motioned to the pen for the senior right-hander.
Stewart sat the next three Quakers (0-1) down, beginning the outing with a strikeout, to strand the Quakers’ runner at second.
“I love Stewie coming in,” Aggie starter Shane Sdao said. “I mean, he’s a veteran guy. He’s very, very low key and I love that we put him in that situation for his first outing, just threw him right into the fire and he does what he does.”
The Aggies (4-0) only needed three batters to come to the plate in the bottom of the ninth to score their first run of the game and the only run they needed to secure the win.
Wednesday’s appearance was his first since the second weekend of the 2025 season. After six pitches against Cal Poly, Stewart’s arm was shut down for the remainder of the season due to injury. In 2024, Stewart emerged as one of A&M’s go-to arms, collecting a 2-2 record with a 4.26 ERA in 25 appearances.
Through four games, the Aggies have outscored opponents by a total of 36 runs, with no game in the balance in later innings. Friday gave Aggie fans a look at what the back end of the Aggie bullpen could look like with Stewart leading the charge.
“Great for Stewie,” Aggie game-winning hitter Boston Kellner said. “He’s been through a lot and to see him out there tonight and really competing and doing his thing — I love the guy, so to see him do what he can do, it was pretty cool.”
Here is the game rundown:
Why did A&M win? The Aggie offense perfectly executed a late-game, small-ball situation with Kellner delivering the game-winning blow.
A&M led off the inning with catcher Bear Harrison drawing a walk after falling behind 0-2 to Penn reliever Thomas Shurtleff. Second baseman Travis Chestnut pushed a sacrifice bunt almost all the way to first base, just missing out on an infield base hit. Pinch runner Sawyer Farr made his way to second on the sacrifice.
On the first pitch of his at-bat, Kellner drove a line drive to deep center, which appeared an easy play for center fielder Ryan Taylor. The Penn outfielder took a big step toward the infield after the ball was hit, which put him out of position to make a play. The ball sailed over his head, sending Farr home to end the game.
“I just tried to keep calm up on the plate, make sure I knew that it was just another at-bat,” Kellner said. “Once I hit it, I knew I hit it pretty well and once I saw it go over, made sure that Sawyer touched home before I started going crazy.”
Kellner has had a hot start in his first week of college baseball. The Phoenix native is 7 for 16 at the plate with seven RBIs, five doubles and a home run.
“He’s a really good player and when he’s up in that moment, there’s no part of me that’s like, ‘Ah, we’ve got a freshman up.’ You know what I mean? I was just glad he was up.”
Who stood out? Sdao put the Aggies in a position to claim the walk-off win, working through seven innings of scoreless baseball in his second outing after also returning from injury.
Sdao allowed three hits, while he struck out seven. He did not walk a batter on 86 total pitches.
“That’s definitely more of who I am, for sure,” Sdao said. “I felt very refreshed after this outing, because I felt like I had all my stuff and I had what I needed to get done to go through those seven. Definitely could have gone more, but I think what was best for the team was for Darden to come in there and shut things down.”
The veteran lefty had to deal with traffic in the top of the fourth, after giving up a pair of singles and hitting a batter to load the bases, but used an effective cutter and sweeper to force an inning-ending flyout to left.
Darden entered in the eighth and threw a one-hit inning.
Only five Aggies mustered a hit in the game, with Jake Duer and Terrance Kiel II picking up a pair, but A&M left nine runners on base, going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Penn starter Jake Moss kept the Aggie hitters off balance through 4 1/3 innings with four strikeouts.
“He has kind of a plus rise fastball, which we kind of struggled with the other day. He was doing a really good job of mixing a cutter and a slider off of it and then a split. He was commanding 3 1/2 pitches… I didn’t hate our at-bats off him, we just didn’t get hits.”
Stewart earned his first win of the season, while Shurtleff picked up the loss.
What was a key stat? Friday was the second game in a row in which A&M’s pitching staff did not issue a walk.
What’s next? Both teams return to Blue Bell Park Saturday at 2 p.m. for the second game of the series. A&M right-hander Weston Moss (1-0, 7.20 ERA) is scheduled to face Penn lefty Marty Coyne (0-0, 0.00 ERA).
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