rice erupted for Texas A&M after Boston Kellner’s injury, giving the Aggies a major offensive boost despite a series loss to Ole Miss.
Texas A&M baseball didn’t get the weekend result it wanted against Ole Miss, but the Aggies may have discovered a badly needed spark at exactly the right time.
No. 7 Texas A&M dropped the rubber match to No. 20 Ole Miss, losing 6-5 on Saturday after briefly evening the series with an 18-5 power surge earlier in the doubleheader.
The Aggies moved to 37-12 overall and 16-10 in SEC play, but the bigger storyline may have been what happened after freshman shortstop Boston Kellner went down Friday night.
Kellner suffered a broken orbital bone after taking a ball to the face in Game 1, leaving Texas A&M without one of its most reliable defensive pieces for the foreseeable future.
Into that opening stepped senior Ben Royo, and he didn’t just fill in. He exploded.
Royo, a Rice transfer from Corpus Christi, went a perfect 7-for-7 across the weekend with three home runs, five RBIs and a walk.
That’s a staggering turnaround for a player who had appeared in only four games this season and had not recorded a hit before the series.
For Aggies fans, the production wasn’t totally out of nowhere. Royo hit .258 with 10 home runs last season, so the bat has been there. Still, with Kellner locking down shortstop early in the year, Royo had been stuck waiting for his chance.
Now, Texas A&M may need him to become much more than a reserve.
D1Baseball listed Royo as its top hitter on the weekend leaderboard, and while nobody should expect a perfect batting line to continue, his timing couldn’t be better.
With Mississippi State up next and the SEC Tournament looming, the Aggies need healthy bats, clean defense and another run producer.
Royo just gave them a reason to believe they’ve found one.
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