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Texas A&M Softball Earns NCAA Tournament Bid For 21st-Consecutive Year

The Texas A&M Aggies softball team is 89-71 in 33 NCAA Tournament appearances.

Casey Smith

Aside from 2020 when the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19, there has not been an NCAA Softball Tournament without the Texas A&M Aggies since 2001.

In head coach Trisha Ford's first season at the helm, Texas A&M was selected as an at-large bid in the Austin Regional hosted by No. 13 Texas and will open tournament play against Texas State Friday at 6:30 p.m.

The Aggies finished their season 33-19 and seventh in the Southeastern Conference at 12-12. In the conference tournament, Texas A&M lost a heartbreaking 1-0 extra-innings game to SEC runner up South Carolina in the first round Wednesday.

The Aggies are paced offensively by a quintet of .300 hitters in power-hitting catcher Julia Cottrill, infielders Trinity Cannon, Koko Wooley and Amari Harper and outfielder Keely Williams. 

Cottrill has mashed 10 home runs and drove in 43 in her first season in College Station after transferring from Oklahoma State, earning First Team All-SEC honors Friday.

Infielder Rylen Wiggins joined the Wichita, KS. native on the All-SEC First Team, hitting .282 with three home runs and 14 RBIs.

Watch out for the speedster Wooley on the base paths as she stole 19 of 24 this season and Cannon who walked 34 times to help her team-high .486 on-base percentage.

The Aggies have a four-woman pitching staff in right-handers Shaylee Ackerman and Emily Leavitt and lefties Emiley Kennedy and Madison Preston, all of whom started at least 11 games.

Kennedy led the way, punching 101 batters as her 105 innings were the 13th-most in the SEC this season.

Texas A&M's key in the circle is limiting free bases, as it has walked 129 hitters and hit a conference-high 59.

The Aggies have a .556 win percentage in 160 total NCAA Tournament games in program history. Their last national championship came in 1987 and, since then, their best finish is a Women's College World Series Runner-Up finish in 2008. 

Texas A&M hasn't advanced to the Super Regionals since 2018, but it made the Norman Regional Final last season before losing to eventual national champion Oklahoma.

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Casey Smith
CASEY SMITH

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