Aggies Softball Falls To Longhorns In Austin Regional Final
With the season on the line, Texas A&M catcher Riley Valentine launched a three-run homer over the left-field wall at McCombs Field to keep the Aggies alive Sunday afternoon in Austin.
That lasted all of two innings before No. 13 Texas found life once again in the top of the seventh with an RBI single from Viviana Martinez. The Longhorns would strike out the side in the bottom frame to give them an 11-5 victory in the Austin Regional Final.
The Longhorns now advance to the super regionals for the fourth time in five seasons. As for A&M, the road back to College Station is filled with ample highlights and a bit of regret.
Entering Saturday, A&M (35-21) needed to win back-to-back games against the Longhorns (45-13-1) if it wanted to advance to Knoxville to take on No. 4 Tennessee. Aggies coach Trisha Ford intended to use three pitchers and save her bullpen for a winner-take-all matchup later in the evening.
Later never came. The Longhorns chased starting pitcher Shaylee Ackerman with two walks and two hits, including a two-run double from Courtney Day to make it 3-0. Ford immediately went to the pen and turned to Madison Preston to steer the ship.
Preston, a senior right-hander, didn't fare much better. She allowed a hit and issued two walks before giving way to sophomore Emiley Kennedy to close the first frame.
“I think we executed our pitches the way we needed to execute it,” Ford said postgame. “[Texas] just had a lot of barrels because the ball was over the white.”
The Longhorns tacked on two more runs against Kennedy in the second thanks to a bases-loaded walk to Ashton Maloney and a sacrifice fly to deep center from Reese Atwood. Combined, A&M pitchers issued eight walks and struck out just three batters.
The Aggies responded twice to the scoring by producing runs of their own. Trinity Cannon helped cut the deficit to 4-1 in the first with an RBI groundout, while Allie Enright smacked an RBI double to left-center field that scored Rylen Wiggins from first.
After that, it was all Texas until the fifth. Longhorns starting pitcher Mac Morgan (18-3) worked her way out of a jam in the third with two Aggies in scoring position by striking out back-to-back hitters. An inning later, she forced Enright to ground into an inning-ending double play.
“I felt like we got passive,” Ford said. “I think we took some pitches that, watching film, we shouldn’t have been taking. We have tendencies to start off aggressive early in the count then get a little passive in the middle of the game and turn it back on late.”
As a unit, A&M finished 1 of 10 with runners in scoring position. The Aggies totaled seven hits and four walks while striking out six times. Shortstop Koko Wooley and Wiggins both finished 2 of 4 at the plate and scored a run.
Day proved to be a problem for the Aggies all afternoon. The designated hitter plated five runs with two swings, including a bases-clearing double in the fifth to make it 10-2 in favor of Texas. As a unit, UT was a modest 3 of 10 with runners in scoring position.
Tensions flared during the fifth inning after Mia Scott reached on an error before Day's three-run double. Initially thought to be called out on a 1-2 count, umpire Keith Kearney determined the pitch was too low.
Before Day's blast, Ford came to the circle to make a position switch at catcher. During the exchange, assistant coach Jeff Harger met with Kearney to discuss the strike zone and was immediately ejected.
“Coach Harger, I think if you’ve watched him, he’s got a lot of passion and he’s got their backs and I am absolutely A-OK with what he did, because he’s going to have all of our players’ backs," said Ford.
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