Most people think of Sunday pitchers as the lesser of a college baseball team’s trio of starting pitchers for a weekend series, but that certainly doesn’t apply to Texas A&M’s Aiden Sims.
With Sims lights out on the mound, the No. 24 Texas A&M Aggies swept the Penn Quakers with ease Sunday afternoon in a 7-1 affair in front of the hometown crowd at Blue Bell Park.
Sims took his second win of the season after setting a career high in innings pitched with seven, as well as strikeouts, with 10.
“Sim”ply Magnificient
Texas A&M pitcher Shane Sdao (38) throws a pitch during the first inning against Oregon at Olsen Field, Blue Bell Park | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images
After a lackluster past two games at the plate, Texas A&M got the ball rolling early in the bottom of the second inning when yesterday’s offensive hero, second baseman Sawyer Farr, continued his heroics with an RBI single to score Nico Partida, whose two-run homer the following inning gave the Maroon and White an early 4-0 lead.
Zane Becker secured a run batted in as he filled in for Bear Harrison behind the dish for the Aggies, grounding out to shortstop to bring home Travis Chestnut in the fourth inning, and Jake Duer’s double a few batters later gave Terrence Kiel II his second run scored on the day.
After Sims retired the first 16 batters he faced on the day, his sixth inning of work saw him surrender back-to-back doubles that allowed Penn to score their lone run of the game, but there was no real threat from the Quaker lineup on Sunday.
In the bottom of the seventh, a bunt by Travis Chestnut caused Penn pitcher Nick Newburn to hurry a throw to first, a throw that brought Nick Spaventa off the bag and allowed Boston Kellner to cross the plate for the Aggies, giving them the 7-1 lead that ended up being the final score of the game.
Josh Stewart would come on in relief of Sims to start the eighth inning, and retired all six batters he faced over the next two innings to give the Aggies their second straight sweep and their seventh straight win to start the 2026 campaign.
Sims’ outing on Sunday was a testament to the dominance of the Texas A&M pitching throughout the 29 innings that made up the weekend, striking out 32 batters and not allowing a single walk in the series, a feat that had not been accomplished consecutively by the team’s arms since the SEC Tournament back in 2018 against Auburn and Ole Miss, let alone four times in a row where the Aggies sit at now if you count their most recent midweek game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Needless to say, head coach Michael Earley was thrilled with his pitching unit’s work throughout the weekend.
“Anytime pitchers throw strikes, don’t walk anyone at all or hit anybody at all, they just give you a chance to win,” Earley said following the contest. “When you do that, and you throw some good stuff up there, and they get deep in games, they really give you a chance to win. And if it wasn’t for those guys, we don’t win either of those first two ball games. No doubt in my mind.”
After delivering a fiery message to his team about two-strike approaches following yesterday’s narrow win, Earley saw significant improvement from his squad on Sunday in all areas at the plate.
“Two-strike approach was a lot better today,” Earley said. “And not just the two-strike approach, not just taking pitches that they can hit in the count. We tell the hitters to swing at the strikes and take the balls, and yesterday they took the strikes and swung at the balls. They swung at pitches they could handle and they made adjustments to stay on baseballs and the response was great today.”
Texas A&M will look to continue their hot start to the year with a hosting of the Lamar Cardinals Tuesday night at 6:00 PM in College Station.