At its last away games of the regular season on Wednesday, May 4, Texas A&M softball extended its losing streak to five games despite leading efforts on offense.
The Cougars started off strong in the first game, hitting a two-RBI shot to take the lead early. Freshman pitcher Emiley Kennedy cut Houston‘s momentum short with a strikeout to end the inning. The Aggies were unable to respond, and the Cougars took advantage of a fielding error in the second to extend their lead.
The A&M rally began in the third inning with the first hit from freshman center fielder Cayden Baker extending her hit streak to six games. It carried into the fourth when freshman left fielder and deputy player Katie Dack slammed a home run to put the Aggies on the board —her fifth in six games. The fifth inning stood quiet on both sides, but the A&M comeback surged when senior first baseman Haley Lee bombed a hit over the left wall to cut the Cougar lead down to one. The maroon and white tried to close out the game, but Houston held on to the 3-2 victory.
Immediately following their loss, the Aggies had to shake off the Game 1 results for their second match against Houston. As opposed to the first matchup, A&M led the way in the first inning when an RBI single from senior deputy player and pitcher Makinzy Herzog sent senior right fielder Morgan Smith racing home to gain the lead. In the second inning, sophomore pitcher and left fielder Grace Uribe had her first career home run to pull the Aggies up 2-0, but the Cougars managed to secure a run to bring it within one.
Following a wild pitch from Herzog in the seventh, Houston tied the score to extend the game into eight innings for the fourth time this year. Despite a diving catch from Smith, the Cougars hit an RBI double to win the game with another 3-2 lead.
The Aggies ran through the pitching lineup with Kennedy and Herzog splitting the first game, and Uribe starting the second with Herzog to relieve after two innings. The pitching crew had eight strikeouts on the day across both games, but 12 hits overall. The loss moves A&M to 27-23 while moving Houston up to 26-26-1.
The maroon and white will end their regular season at home in a three-game series against No. 5 Arkansas May 6-8. The first game is set to take place at 6 p.m. at Davis Diamond in College Station.
