The No. 15 A&M Softball team stayed in the hunt for the Big 12 Championship by sweeping the Missouri Tigers in their weekend series. The wins kept the Aggies in second place, two games behind the league leading Texas Longhorns heading into Wednesday’s game in College Station.
“It’s a huge confidence boost,” A&M head coach Jo Evans said. “Because even yesterday with scoring the four runs we still didn’t feel like we hit the ball as well as we should have or could have. So to come out today and struggle a little early but then make an adjustment and do what we did was really important. You know every game is going to be big down the stretch just because we need to get our team to play consistently and to play with a fire in our belly, and we saw that two days in a row now.”
Saturday’s game saw the Aggies explode in the first inning with homeruns by leadoff batter Jamie Henshaw and freshman Holly Ridley. The four first inning runs would be all the Aggies would need, as Missouri was only able to score two runs off of A&M pitcher Megan Gibson. Gibson gave up nine hits with 10 strikeouts in the 4-2 win.
On Sunday, neither team was able to put a run on the board until the fourth inning when Tiger pitcher Jen Bruck gave up a solo homerun to Gibson. In the next inning, senior Rocky Spencer had a two RBI double, followed by a two-run homer by sophomore Jamie Lobpries, as the Aggies scored a total of 7 runs in the fifth to run-rule the Tigers 8-0.
“I have to give credit, A&M did a nice job today,” Missouri head coach Ty Singleton said. “I also have to speak to Jen Bruck, that’s 12 innings they’ve faced her. They should be comfortable with her at that point, and if our pitchers aren’t sharp, they should respond at that point.”
A&M pitcher Amanda Scarborough got out of a couple of jams in her five innings of work on Sunday, getting the shutout on 4 hits with 2 strikeouts and a walk.
“I think playing at home and sweeping a team that swept us last year is huge,” Scarborough said. “They beat us two times last year and we had to prove that we are better than them and we are the Big 12 champs. I think it was just huge for us to come and win two especially when we’ve been splitting with a lot of teams, and playing not so great one game and coming out fired up the next.”