COLLEGE STATION, Texas. – The Quakers opened the 2026 season at No. 24 Texas A&M on Friday night at Blue Bell Park, resulting in a narrow 1-0 victory for the hosts. It was a pitcher's duel for the opening eight innings of the contest, until some ninth inning magic from the Aggies pushed them over the line.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn's offense was paced by senior shortstop Davis Baker, who finished his outing with two singles in the loss. The visitors logged four hits on the evening to the Aggies' seven.
 
* Freshman Jay Secretarski earned his first collegiate start for the Quakers at second base, while notching his first career hit with a single to left center.
 
* Jake Moss got the starting nod on the mound, but reliever Thomas Shurtleff was credited with the loss.  Both right-handers struck out four batters; however, Texas A&M's Boston Kellner hit a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth to seal the victory.

* Sophomore catcher Ernie Echevarria caught two Aggies stealing, matching his previous career high.
 
How It Happened
Shane Sdao started on the mound for the hosts and retired the Quakers' first three hitters of the evening on two fly outs and a strikeout.
 
Moss got the Opening Day start for Penn and allowed a base hit against the first hitter he faced. The Manhasset, N.Y. native struck out Texas A&M's next batter and then Echevarria threw down to second to send Gavin Grahovac back to the dugout. The first inning concluded with Wesley Jordan grounding out.
 
Nick Spaventa was the first Quaker to get on base, courtesy of an error at third base. Sdao struck out the next two batters to keep proceedings scoreless.
 
The Aggies recorded two hits in the bottom of the second, but with two runners on junior outfielder Gavin Collins made a great snag before the wall to get Penn out of the inning.
 
The Quakers went down in order to begin the third, while the Aggies left two runners on base when Jake Duer grounded out to Moss.
 
Baker got the bats rolling for Penn as the leadoff hitter in the fourth stanza. Sdao retired the Quakers' next two batters, but Spaventa then singled to left field to keep the offense on the field. Senior outfielder Ryan Taylor loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch, but a fly out to left field allowed Texas A&M to get out of impending trouble.
 
Moss let up two walks and a hit in the bottom of the fourth, before a Grahovac fly out to second base ended the inning.
 
Penn's next three batters were retired in order. Moss sat down Caden Sorrell and surrendered a hit to begin the bottom of the fifth, before right-handed reliever Thomas Shurtleff was called into action. The senior co-captain struck out the Aggies' next two hitters to send Friday's matchup to the sixth inning.
 
Sdao and Shurtleff highlighted the sixth inning by retiring the first three batters they faced, and the pitching duel continued by not allowing a hit or runner on base in the seventh.
 
Secretarski logged his first collegiate hit at the top of the eighth with a single to left but was later picked off at first. Collins then sent the hosts to the plate after he struck out swinging. Shurtleff let up his first hit in the bottom of the eighth; however, he quickly recovered by retiring Nico Partida and Terrence Kiel II.

Baker tallied his second hit of the evening in the top of the ninth with a single to right to give the Quakers' offense some juice. The Dallas, Texas native advanced to second on a wild pitch shortly after, but relief pitcher Josh Stewart sat down Jarrett Pokrovsky, Echevarria and Spaventa to take the contest to the bottom of the ninth.

The Aggies walked it off on a Kellner double to center field, which saw pinch runner Sawyer Farr score the winning run.

Up Next
The Red and Blue return to action for the second game of the three-game series on Saturday at 3 p.m. The game will be streamed live on SEC+ Network.
 
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