That was a bit closer than expected — for five innings.
The Texas A&M softball team continued their dominant fall campaign with an 13-0 victory in ten innings over Temple College Wednesday night at the Aggie Softball Complex.
The Aggies started off the game slowly at the plate, only recording two hits through three innings. Temple pitcher Lexi Smith got the start and she started the game well, fooling the Aggie hitters to the tune of six strikeouts through three innings.
Sophomore transfer Trinity Harrington came out blazing from the mound, striking out the first nine batters she faced. The strikeout streak came to an end when Harrington got a Temple batter to hit a weak ground ball back at the mound for the easy put out. Head coach Jo Evans heaped praise on the sophomore after her dominating 3-hit, sixteen strikeout performance.
“I thought she pitched really well,” Evans said. “She had sixteen strikeouts; that’s a huge night. She got herself behind in some counts and came right back and got hitters out.”
A&M broke the scoring open in the second inning from sophomore Ashley Walters when the catcher drove a Lexi Smith offering to right field for an RBI double, scoring freshman Samantha Show from first base. Shortstop Kristen Cuyos added another run in the fourth with a solo home run.
Smith exited the game after five innings, allowing two runs on three hits. Walters spoke about the effectiveness of Smith after the game.
“She has a really good, slow rise ball and her curve also rises so you just have to keep your strike zone down,” Walters said. “I just tried to stay really relaxed at the plate because yesterday, I didn’t really do as good as I wanted to. So I just wanted to just stay relaxed at the plate and hit the ball. That’s what I did.
Sophomore Carrigan Chambers replaced Smith and the Aggies took advantage, scoring five runs and putting the game out of reach in the process. The beginning of the end for Temple came from an errant throw from the shortstop attempting to throw out Breanna Dozier at second. The ball sailed into right field, allowing Dozier to score easily from second.
The Aggies continued to hit the ball hard off of Chambers with RBI’s from Walters, Kaitlyn Alderink, Keeli Milligan and Erica Russell in the fifth. Four more runs in the seventh along with two runs in the ninth secured the Aggie victory.
The Aggies will continue the fall campaign on Tuesday with a visit from Tyler Junior College. First pitch is at 5 p.m.
