The long-ball was the key to No. 7 Texas A&M’s come from behind victory over the Missouri Tigers Sunday. After falling behind 3-0 in the first inning, the Aggies hit four home runs en route to a 9-4 win in front of 858 fans at the Aggie Softball Complex. The Aggies remained at the top in the Big 12 standings, improving to 6-0 in conference.
“I love the mentality of our team,” said A&M Head Coach Jo Evans. “I’m very proud of our kids. Every time they scored we came back and at least scored one in the inning and that made a huge difference for us.”
Senior pitcher Megan Gibson held on to her perfect record despite first inning difficulties and earned her 21st victory. She struck out nine batters in the complete game performance.
The Tigers struck first and with power as the first three batters for Missouri hit safely and scored. After Rhea Taylor lead off with a single, Julie Silver stung a run-scoring double to left field to put the Tigers on the board. Jen Bruck followed with an exclamatory homer, making the score 3-0.
“I’m excited about the way Gibson and our team kept their composure out there,” Evans said. “It was no surprise to me that Missouri came out and swung the bat like that. I knew they made adjustments. Their coach does a good job with their hitters and they were aggressive.”
Gibson helped her cause in the first inning, nailing the Aggies’ first homer and cutting the lead to 3-1. However, Bruck got the run back in the third with her second homer of the game, a solo shot making it 4-1.
“I really have a lot of respect for Jen Bruck,” Evans said. “She’s feisty as can be. Yesterday, she got that homerun in her last at bat, it didn’t mean a whole lot in the score book for that game, but it meant a lot to her coming in to this game. She had all that confidence and took that at-bat into today and worked off it. I love the way that Gibson went at her in her third at bat and struck her out.”
The Aggies would finally tie the game in their half of the third. Jamie Hinshaw scored Kelsey Spittler on a sacrifice fly to left field, and Holly Ridley smashed a single up the middle with the bases loaded, scoring Gibson and Macie Morrow and tying the game at 4-4.
A&M took control of the game in the fifth inning, notching five runs driven in by homers. Freshman Natalie Villarreal led off the inning by knocking out the first pitch she saw, and two batters later, Hinshaw smacked a 2-2 pitch over the wall to make the score 6-4. Senior Jami Lobpries inserted the dagger with two outs on a 3-run dinger, scoring Ridley and Alex Reynolds.
Gibson did the rest. She did not allow a Tiger to reach in the last two innings and struck out three of them.
A&M, after completing a two-game sweep of Missouri, will have a week to prepare for their next series on the road at Iowa State. First pitch against the Cyclones will be Saturday at 2 p.m.