Not often are fans of Aggie softball treated to a top-25 midweek non-conference game in the thick of conference play, but Wednesday night they were given just that.
No. 21 Texas A&M played host to No. 25 Louisiana Lafayette on Wednesday, April 12, coming away with a 4-2 win at Davis Diamond.
“It was a great game,” A&M coach Trisha Ford said. “I thought we did a lot of things on both sides of the plate.”
Though the Aggies are no stranger to top-25 matchups, Ford said that a game like this is good for her squad.
“I like to continue to play ranked teams over and over because I feel like you just continue to put tools in your toolbox and you’re only getting better from that,” Ford said.
Despite the Ragin’ Cajuns doubling the Aggie hit total, they were never able to get the timely hits to drive in the runs they needed.
On the other hand, the hits A&M got came in a timely manner.
The Aggies did not wait to get the scoring started as junior 1B Trinity Cannon notched her seventh home run of the season, taking a changeup deep to left center, putting the Aggies in front 1-0 in the first inning.
“I was really struggling these past few weekends with my timing and stuff like that,” Cannon said. “I was like tonight I just need to let the ball travel.”
The way the ball came off the bat, fans in attendance might have thought Cannon knew what was coming, and that is exactly what happened.
“I had noticed the way she was gripping the ball on the changeup and so I saw it again on the third pitch,” Cannon said.
It would not take long for the Ragin’ Cajuns to respond as sophomore 2B Alexa Langeliers hit a solo home run of her own to tie the game in the second. However, the maroon and white went back in front, 3-1, in the bottom half of the inning on a two-RBI single off the bat of junior C Julia Cottrill.
“I wanted to let the ball travel,” Cottrill said. “I knew she wasn’t throwing very many strikes. I don’t even know if the one I swung at was a strike, honestly, but I knew she was keeping it low in the zone, so I wanted to keep the ball on the ground.”
The lead the Aggies built would stick despite allowing another run to come across in the top of the fourth on another solo home run.
A&M had a chance to break the game open in the bottom of the fourth when they loaded the bases with no outs, but only one run was able to come across on a RBI walk from sophomore SS Koko Wooley.
Starting pitcher for the Aggies was sophomore Emily Leavitt who went three innings, allowing two runs on five hits and no walks while striking out three. Sophomore Emiley Kennedy came in relief and was dominant through four innings, giving up no runs on five hits and two walks while fanning five.
The appearance from Kennedy continued the trend that has been going on the past week of having a lights out performance. She has been especially good after coming in for Leavitt, Ford said.
“Emiley Kennedy matches up with anybody when you’re throwing the way she’s throwing,” Ford said.
Kennedy came in relief in the fourth after Leavitt allowed a home run and a single. After loading the bases with no outs, Kennedy was able to work out of the jam unscathed and was smooth sailing from then on out.
Momentum continues to build for the Aggies who were coming off a sweep of Mississippi State, however, the work does not begin to slow down, Cannon said.
“We still got practice tomorrow and then we get hitting before the weekend series,” Cannon said. “You just feed off of everything that happened tonight. Take a look at your timing, look at defense and stuff like that and just work on the details.”
Cottrill echoed the same sentiment.
“I think that’s about right,” Cottrill said. “Keep the momentum going one game at a time.”
A&M will travel to South Carolina this weekend as they take on the Gamecocks in a three-game set that begins on Friday, April 14.