Walking up to Davis Diamond on the third base side, stands what in the coming months will be an indoor hitting facility, but for now it is housing heavy construction equipment.
The walls in the press box still have markings from where the contractors were making measurements and blue masking tape lines the counter were the writing press worked.
However, none the ongoing construction mattered Saturday afternoon when No. 11 Texas A&M defeated No. 12 Auburn in walk off fashion 1-0, giving A&M its first series victory in the Aggies’ new home.
Senior Tori Vidales said playing in Davis Diamond was worth the wait even if it was for the last home series of her career at A&M.
“We’re so lucky to be able to play in it and they were able to get it done enough in time for us to play in it,” Vidales said. “We were joking earlier, it’s kind of like when your mom comes to visit you at college you just kind of throw everything in your closet, make sure it’s clean. It’s just so awesome to play on it. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I wasn’t able to experience this. This was amazing I am so thankful for everyone that’s worked on it.”
In the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs, junior Riley Sartain singled down the left field line to put A&M’s winning run on base. Sophomore Kelbi Fortenberry then followed with a shallow ball that fell just out of Auburn third baseman Makenna Dowell advancing the runner. On a 2-0 count with the winning run on second, senior Kristen Cuyos singled to center allowing for pinch runner Kylie George to score the winning run.
“All game she was throwing us low outside — her drop ball is phenomenal, so we knew we had to cheat up on the plate to take that pitch away and just set it down the middle,” Cuyos said. “I saw it was a 2-0 count — great hitters count — and I just hit it as hard as I could and hit it down the hole.”
A&M head coach Jo Evans said Cuyos’ ability to stay focused, despite struggling at the plate this season which led to Evans pulling Cuyos out of the batting line up last week at LSU and take one at bat at a time was the reason why Cuyos was able to get the game winning hit.
“I went to Kristen and I said ‘Were going to [not have you on the batting line up] for this game. I don’t want you to panic, I don’t want you to think you’re never going to be in the batting line up again,’ I said ‘I want you to be a great teammate and go out there and play great defense, the kid did everything I asked her to do… We come here this weekend and she gets a huge hit for us. I’m loving the way Kristen is playing,” Evans said.
Cuyos’ game winning hit was the one of six hits the entire game, A&M out hit Auburn 5 to 1 but three of those hits came in the last inning. Junior pitcher Samantha Show earned the victory in the circle for the Aggies, pitching a complete game, eight strike outs and giving up only one walk.
“It’s huge, we got the series win and just coming out here and being resilient and knowing that in the early innings, when we’re putting great contact on the ball that’s just going right to them or that they’re making great plays we just go to keep going,” Show said.
Sunday, A&M closes out its regular season hoping to earn its first series sweep on Davis Diamond as well as Senior day. Vidales, who is a four-year letterman for A&M, said she looks forward to the day and is feeling nostalgic.
“I’m really nervous for tomorrow,” Vidales said. “I know it’s going to be an emotional roller coaster but it’s so bitter sweet, you know you’ve enjoyed your four years here, but you don’t want it to end. You love the people, the coaches and your support staff and knowing that I’ll never get to experience this ever again is definitely sad, but I’ll be on the other side looking in.”
A&M wraps up the regular season Sunday as they host No. 12 Auburn for the series finale. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Davis Diamond.