COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – In a game riddled with faulty two-strike approaches from the No. 25 Texas A&M lineup, it was substitute Sawyer Farr who pushed the Aggies to a 2-1 win over Penn Saturday with a pair of patient at-bats.<\/p>\n
As the second game of the weekend series began on a windy Saturday afternoon in Blue Bell Park, Farr was a long-shot to get significant playing time. He had one at-bat in A&M\u2019s season opener against Tennessee Tech after pinch-running earlier in the game.<\/p>\n
However, a fluke injury to Aggie standout Caden Sorrell eventually opened the door for Farr to become Saturday\u2019s hero.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just prepared for anything, man,\u201d Farr said after the game. \u201cI was just excited. I was blessed that [head coach Michael Earley] called on me. He had a lot of guys that he could have called on in that moment and I was hoping that it was me and it was and whenever he called my name, I told myself, \u2018I\u2019m not going to miss the opportunity.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In Friday\u2019s series opener, Sorrell suffered a cut to the side of his hand, between his index finger and thumb. A Penn player\u2019s metal spike caused the cut while Sorrell was attempting to steal a base in the game, requiring stitches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that, by all accounts, does not look like it could be long term at all,\u201d Earley said after the game.<\/p>\n
Initially, utility fielder Travis Chestnut began the game in center field, while Ben Royo made his first start at second base. Chris Hacopian was also out of the lineup for a third consecutive game with back stiffness.<\/p>\n
After an opening series full of offense, the Aggies (6-0) struggled at the plate through the first two games of the series against Penn (0-2). Earley said Friday he liked the approach his hitters took at the plate, but Penn\u2019s pitching had the edge. Earley was not pleased Saturday with the approach his hitters took into two-strike counts.<\/p>\n
In total, Aggie hitters struck out 17 times Saturday, eight of them looking at the final strike. Aggie hitters chased too many fastballs low and below the strike zone, Earley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo-strike approach on balls in the zone is just completely unacceptable and something we\u2019re definitely going to fix. I mean, those guys are better than that. They\u2019ve been better than that. They work on that. They\u2019ve got to buy it, and sometimes, when that batting average starts going up on the scoreboard, people start to lose their minds and realize you play as a team, you hit as a team, and they\u2019ll do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Farr\u2019s name wasn\u2019t called until the bottom of the ninth. Sorrell entered the game late as a defensive substitute, but wasn\u2019t able to swing the bat. Earley had Sorrell take the on-deck circle, hoping Penn would move to a left-handed pitcher, but swapped Farr anyway.<\/p>\n
With a full count, Farr waited on a looping breaking ball and hit it so close to the line in right field that white paint flew into the air. The double drove Terrence Kiel II home to tie the game at 1.<\/p>\n
Two innings later, Farr showcased a good eye to draw a five-pitch walk with the bases loaded, once again bringing Kiel home for the game-winning run.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did a great job, man,\u201d Earley said of Farr. \u201cI mean, if you go through that at-bat, he threw that pitch in the zone twice, right?\u2026 That is a tough pitch to keep fair, just because of how slow it is. You can jam yourself. He just did a really good job. Like that was a master class on how you take in at-bats, get information on pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farr added an impressive defensive play in the top of the 10th, ranging well beyond second base to field a ground ball and make the long throw to first for the final out of the inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh man, that was awesome,\u201d Aggie reliever Clayton Freshcorn said of the play made behind him. \u201cI was telling him that I was more hyped about not even getting the out, just the play itself. That was so cool to see. All of the emotion was towards him, not even getting the out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here is the game rundown:<\/p>\n
Why did A&M win? In an 11-inning game, it was the three innings in which Farr was on the field that made the difference.<\/p>\n
Kiel set up the game-tying run by drawing a walk in the ninth and advancing to second on a wild pitch. Farr did the rest with his double, which was reviewed and confirmed by the officials.<\/p>\n
In the 11th, Kiel led off the inning with a single through the left side, away from the defensive shift. Nico Partida followed in the next at-bat with the same chopper away from the defensive alignment. Chestnut dropped a perfect bunt in front of the plate that allowed the speedster to reach safely. All Farr needed to do was draw the five-pitch walk and celebrate.<\/p>\n
However, A&M\u2019s pitching staff needed to make the comeback happen with another gritty performance. Saturday was the third consecutive game in which Aggie pitchers did not issue a walk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrow strikes, throw strikes, throw strikes and good things are going to happen. So those guys have been great. I knew they were going to be good, and they\u2019re going to continue to be good as long as we continue to stay with what we do,\u201d Earley said.<\/p>\n
Penn\u2019s lone run of the game came on a Gavin Collins single through the left side of the field on a hard-hit ball that Partida was unable to snag. It was preceded by three consecutive Penn singles, three of the Quakers\u2019 seven hits in the game.<\/p>\n
Who stood out? Freshcorn (1-0) earned his first win of the season, closing out the final two innings of the game with no hits and no runs. He struck out two.<\/p>\n
Starter Weston Moss saw one unearned run cross the plate in six innings on the mound, while allowing six hits. He struck out eight and threw 95 pitches.<\/p>\n
Juan Vargas pitched three scoreless innings, allowing one hit.<\/p>\n
The bottom of A&M\u2019s order was the most potent again, with Kiel, Partida and Chestnut all recording two hits.<\/p>\n
Farr had both of A&M\u2019s RBIs.<\/p>\n
Penn reliever Ben Moulin (0-1) took the loss in two-thirds of an inning. Starter Marty Coyne and reliever Connor Darling combined to sit down 14 Aggie hitters by strikeout.<\/p>\n
What was a key stat? Through two games of the series, A&M is 4-for-20 with runners in scoring position, with seven of those 20 outs coming by way of strikeout.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next? A&M goes for its second series sweep of the season at 1 p.m. Sunday. Right-hander Aiden Sims (1-0, 1.50 ERA) makes his second start of the season. Penn has yet to announce a Sunday probable.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – In a game riddled with faulty two-strike approaches from the No. 25 Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[70371,70710,27,3042,29,28],"class_list":["post-175223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-penn","tag-sawyer-farr","tag-texas","tag-texas-am","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}