Fresh off its series win over No. 3 Auburn, No. 22 Texas A&M softball traveled to Starkville, Mississippi for the 2016 SEC softball tournament.
In their final regular season series of the season, the Aggies won their first road series of the season after taking two of three games from No.3 Auburn. After the conclusion of the final game Sunday, it was announced that A&M would face No. 14 LSU in the first round of the tournament.
The last time the two teams met was in the 2016 SEC opener, which was hosted in College Station. The Aggies outscored the Tigers 16-11 throughout the entire weekend to earn their first SEC series victory.
On Wednesday, though, it was the Tigers who escaped as the victors, defeating the Aggies 5-4.
LUS took an early 2-0 lead over the Aggies in the first two innings of the game. However, with one swing of the bat, sophomore Ashley Walters gave A&M the 3-2 advantage over the Tigers. Walters, who hits in the four-spot in the A&M lineup, has 10 of the team’s 84 home runs this season. She is also tied for second on the team with the most RBIs with 53 this season. The Aggies extended their lead 4-2 in the top the fifth inning after sophomore Kristen Cuyos delivered an RBI single with two outs.
However, in the bottom of the seventh inning, the A&M defense was unable to hold off the strong LSU lineup. The Tigers cut the A&M lead to one after an RBI single by Sandra Simmons. LSU tied the game at four apiece with one out after a passed ball off the glove of Walters. The Tiger defeated the Aggies after an RBI single by Kellsi Kloss.
Texas A&M head coach Jo Evans said that the early errors hindered the overall performance of the team, which ultimately cost them the victory.
“We are frustrated with the result, because we played the game well.” Evans told 12thman.com “We had a couple of miscues early on, but we made some big plays, especially that double play in the fifth inning to get ourselves out of the inning. I think it came back to haunt us, leaving runners on third early on. We had the right people up in key situations. We just weren’t able to put the game away.”
The Aggies will learn Sunday where they will travel to play an NCAA Regional.