Texas A&M softball’s 4-3 home win over Ole Miss improved its overall record on the season to 28-13 and its SEC record to 6-9.
A&M coach Jo Evans said she was pleased with the effort her players showed in Sunday’s win.
“[It] feels good to get a win today,” Evans said. “I feel like our kids have been playing hard. We’ve had our chances this whole series. We’ve had opportunities to win all three games. I thought we showed a lot of fight today, showed a lot of resiliency. We give up the two unearned runs in the first inning, and we kept fighting.”
One of the top performers in the game was the winning pitcher Grace Uribe. She was able to go 5.1 innings and gave up three runs, one earned. The win improved her season record to 7-3. Evans said she was proud of the way Uribe was able to keep A&M in the game.
“Grace Uribe was terrific today,” Evans said. “She went out there and really kept us in the ballgame. She gives up those two unearned runs in the first, not her fault by any means. She only gives up one earned run on the day. Can’t say enough about her performance, and then [Makinzy] Herzog being able to come in for an inning and two-thirds and shut them down.”
Ole Miss capitalized on A&M miscues to score two early unearned runs off Uribe in the top of the first to take a 2-0 lead.
Offensively, A&M found it difficult early on to score off Ole Miss starting pitcher Anna Borgen as she held the Aggies scoreless in the first three innings of the game. Uribe was able to right the ship and throw four consecutive scoreless innings to keep the A&M offense within striking distance.
In the fourth inning, A&M finally broke through and evened up the game at two off RBI hits from Bre Warren and Ashlynn Walls. The Aggies took the lead in the following inning after two runs scored on another RBI hit from Warren. A&M led 4-2 going into the sixth inning.
After Ole Miss scored a run of Uribe to cut A&M’s lead to one in the sixth inning, Herzog came on in relief to stop the threat and also ended up closing the game to give A&M the 4-3 win.
The top performer offensively for the Aggies was Warren as she was able to have two hits and two RBIs in the game. Warren said not expanding the strike zone was one of the main reasons she was so successful in Sunday’s game.
“We went back and watched Friday’s film to look at how she was going to pitch to me,” Warren said. “It was important that I didn’t expand my zone when I had two strikes. I was looking to focus on that type of approach in the box.”
Next up for the Aggies is a Tuesday home game against the Houston Cougars. First pitch at Davis Diamond is set for 6 p.m.