By George Watson | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

With a victory in hand and AJ Ramos on the mound, everything was set up for Tech to clinch its Big 12 Conference series against No. 14 Texas A&M on Saturday.

But pitcher Alex Wilson and the Aggie offense had other things in mind, and they clubbed their way to a 13-7 victory at Dan Law Field by hitting four home runs, more than enough for a pitcher who had struggled at times to get run support.

Photos - Aggies rock Tech ace.

“It’s a funny game,” A&M coach Rob Childress said. “We did everything right (Friday) night except get hits with runners in scoring position and (Saturday) we did everything right but got hits with runners in scoring position against Ramos, who seems like he’s been here six or seven years and is an outstanding pitcher.”

A night after going 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position, the Aggies (20-10, 7-4 in Big 12) seemed to score at will in the first four innings, saddling Tech’s ace with his second loss of the season. Ramos surrendered nine runs on 10 hits with two walks and four strikeouts. The nine runs tied a career high for Ramos, matching the mark from a year ago at Kansas, which was his last outing of 2008 before undergoing elbow surgery.

“Tonight was a pretty embarrassing night,” said Ramos, who falls to 3-2 on the year. “I couldn’t locate my fastball, I didn’t have my breaking stuff … and they’re going to make you pay for it. You can’t make bad pitches because they have a lot of power and they showed it tonight.”

Texas Tech's Willie Rueda (1) tags Texas A&M's Brett Parsons (42) at second base during their Big 12 Conference Play Saturday at Dan Law Field. (Merissa Ferguson/Avalanche-Journal)

And just to add injury to insult, it looks as though the Red Raiders (13-19, 5-6) will be without offensive catalyst and starting second baseman Willie Rueda, who reinjured the left hamstring which forced him to miss 12 games early in the season. The injury came as Rueda rounded third with Tech trying to mount a rally in the ninth, and head coach Dan Spencer said at this point Rueda will be out “for a while.”

“That’s what I worry about,” Spencer said “I worry about Willie for Willie, and I worry about Willie for the rest of us. That’s what we talked about in the (postgame) is not what happened in the game but how we’re going to respond without Willie. I feel worse about Willie than I do about us getting beat, and that’s a big statement for me. We all know we haven’t played well without him.”

Tech will have to do so in today’s 1 p.m. series finale in order to avoid losing the series.

Luke Anders started the home run derby for A&M with a two-run shot that capped a three-run first inning. Adam Smith added a solo shot to lead off the fourth, Brodie Greene ripped a two-run blast in the third and Anders added a three-run homer in the fourth. Anders’ five RBIs matched his total from the previous 11 league contests.

“All the guys showed up to play today,” Anders said. “If you go through our lineup one through nine, there’s not a guy who didn’t get a hit with runners in scoring position or a guy who didn’t execute or move a runner over for the next person. That’s what offense is all about and our offense showed that tonight. It’s pretty amazing what we can do when we all come to play like we did today.”

Wilson, who sat out all of last year after undergoing reconstructive elbow surgery, scattered five runs on nine hits and a walk with 10 strikeouts in a season-high eight innings. The run support he received was a welcome sight as two of his three losses came on scores of 2-0 to Utah and Missouri.

Now, the pressure falls on Tech senior Miles Morgan, whom Spencer moved to Sunday to take away some of the pressure from pitching on Fridays. But Morgan is 0-2 in his three Big 12 starts and is 0-4 with a no-decision in his last five outings.

“We’ve got to pitch in the front of the game and if we keep it where we want it to be early we’ll be fine,” Spencer said. “We need Morgan to go out and give us five good innings. I feel good having Miles in that game at that time, I really do. We’ll see what happens.”

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TECH BASEBALL/Aggies even series with four home runs

TEXAS A&M 13, TEXAS TECH 7

TEXAS A&M TEXAS TECH

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Colligan cf 6 1 0 0 Rueda 2b 5 2 3 1

Raley lf 3 3 1 0 Kenworthy ss 5 2 4 2

Shofner 3b 6 2 2 1 Reed lf 5 0 0 0

Anders 1b 4 3 2 5 Richburg 1b 5 1 1 1

Patterson dh 4 0 2 2 Ashby cf 4 0 1 0

Gonzalez c 4 2 2 1 LeJeune dh 3 0 2 1

Greene 2b 5 1 3 2 Berry 3b 4 0 0 0

Parsons rf 3 0 0 0 Totten rf 3 0 0 0 Thorpe rf 1 0 0 0 Leslie ph 1 1 1 0

Smith ss 5 1 1 1 Mayo c 3 0 0 0 Whitehead c 1 1 1 1

Totals 41 13 14 12 Totals 39 7 13 6

Texas A&M 312 300 130 – 13

Texas Tech 003 200 002 – 7

E-Kenworthy (13), Berry (10). DP-Texas A&M 1. LOB-Texas A&M 8, Texas Tech 6. 2B-Colligan (5), Raley (13), Patterson (1), Gonzalez (5), Green (5), Rueda (3), Kenworthy 2(8), Whitehead (3). HR-Anders 2 (6), Greene (4), Smith (4), Kenworthy (1). SF-Gonzales (2). SB-Thorpe (3). CS-Parsons (1)

IP H R ER BB SO

Texas A&M

Wilson (W, 3-3) 8 9 5 5 1 10

Fleece 1 4 2 2 0 0

Texas Tech

Ramos (L, 3-2) 4 10 9 9 3 3

Head 4 4 4 3 1 5

Monreal 1 0 0 0 1 0

WP-Wilson 3(7), Ramos (4). HBP-by Head (Raley). U-Johnson, Barmann, Morris. T-2:35. A-2,779. Records: Texas A&M 20-10, 7-4, Texas Tech 13-19, 5-6.