The No. 20 Texas A&M softball team looks to get back to its winning ways with a midweek visit from Sam Houston State on Wednesday at the Aggie Softball Complex.
The Aggies (19-5, 2-1 SEC) took an 11-game winning streak into their SEC home opener against Kentucky this weekend and pushed it to 13 with wins on Friday and Saturday before falling on Sunday to the Wildcats.
The Bearkats from the Southland Conference (7-14) got off to a rocky start this season, losing their first six games. They turned it around by reeling off four straight victories before a loss against No. 2 Oregon, who also beat the Aggies 5-1 on Feb. 18.
The Aggies are projected to send senior Rachel Fox to the circle on Wednesday. Fox has been pitching lights out this season with a 12-3 record and a team-high 11 complete games. Junior Katie Marks has been a complement to Fox, posting a 6-1 record of her own and a team-leading 1.38 ERA. Head coach Jo Evans said she was especially pleased with Marks’ last outing, albeit in a losing effort.
“The great thing with Katie was that all of their runs were solo home runs,” Evans said. “Tip your hat to Kentucky who was ready to swing the bat. Our team got down two runs and could have given up but Katie Marks put them back in the game. Katie had a really good and solid pitching performance today. I feel very encouraged by her performance, she showed such great fight, especially with those two huge strikeouts to end the sixth inning.”
The Bearkats are led on offense by senior Sarah Allison and junior Peyton Webb. Allison leads the club with six bombs and 20 RBI’s on the season while Webb is second on the team with 16 RBI.
A breakout performer for the Aggies to watch is freshman center fielder Erica Russell, who took over for junior Alex Masek on Sunday and did not disappoint, reaching base on all three appearances with an RBI walk and a double to left-center against the Wildcats.
First pitch is at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.