Texas A&M softball will head to Lexington, Kentucky, to open SEC play with a three-game series against No. 12 Kentucky beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
A&M is 15-7 on the season and coming off of three straight wins at the Reveille Classic. The Aggies dropped their first game of the tournament to Southeastern Louisiana, 8-0, in six innings on Friday night.
With SEC play around the corner, A&M coach Jo Evans said she believes the team has a new mentality heading into Kentucky.
“I feel encouraged about our ball club and I know we are going to face a bunch of tough opponents in conference play,” Evans said. “When you can go from Friday night to what we did yesterday and today, that tells me there is something there.”
Sophomore Makinzy Herzog tops the team batting .456 on the season. Herzog also leads the team in overall statistics in multiple categories, including runs (25), hits (30) and total bases (61). Freshman Jourdyn Campbell is currently tied for second in the Southeastern Conference for double plays (12).
Despite the success of the team’s younger players, the older players have seen their fair share of success. Evans said she was pleased with senior pitcher Payton McBride’s performance during last weekend’s tournament as she posted five hits and four RBIs.
“We needed that, she’s our senior leader,” Evans said. “You see how much better we are when the senior leaders step up.”
The maroon and white bounced back from Friday’s loss with a sweep on day two, earning victories over Southeastern Louisiana and Kansas. The Aggies defeated Southern Louisiana, 10-0, with a run-rule after five innings, and added a 7-6 victory over Kansas on Saturday. The Aggies closed out the Reveille Classic with a 6-3 win over Kansas on Sunday, in which junior pitcher Kayla Poynter earned her fifth win of the season after striking out three batters in 6.0 innings of work.
The Aggies and the Wildcats will face off in a three-game series to open SEC play. First pitch for the first game is slated for 1 p.m. on Saturday at John Cropp Stadium.