Devastation for the Aggies.

In the second game of No. 4 Texas A&M softball’s SEC opening series, No. 3 Florida lost the jitters that kept them down the day prior and took down the Maroon and White in a ruinous 12-4 win.

“Obviously, today was not a good game and not a good representation of who we are,” coach Trisha Ford said. “I feel like when you’re facing a top-tier team, you have to have everything going on all cylinders, and I didn’t feel like any facet of our game was played at a super high level today.”

It’s A&M’s third loss of the season and the second time in two years the team lost by eight points — the first being in May 2024, also to the then-No. 9 Gators. 

The signs of the upcoming struggle showed early. 

The Aggies cycled through three pitchers throughout Saturday’s game, starting with junior right-handed pitcher Grace Sparks against senior center fielder Kendra Falby at bat. 

Falby cycled through her swings and ran to first base. Freshman right fielder Taylor Shumaker, batting next, slammed the ball and sprinted forward. 

Then, senior left fielder Korbe Otis brought it all home. Sparks’ pitch flew into her swing, sending the ball flying. The Aggies caught it, throwing the ball to the catcher’s mitt to stop the incoming Gator — but the catcher dropped it. Falby scored minutes after the game began, putting Florida up 1-0. 

Junior catcher Jocelyn Erickson stepped up next. But little changed. Sparks’ next pitch hurled toward home plate, and the Gator’s bat sent it flying back. Players across the field scrambled: Aggies running toward the ball, Gators toward home. 

Yet it was too late for the Maroon and White. In just moments, three Gators met their white-clad team at home plate, sparking the game alive with a 4-0 start — a stark difference to the prior day’s low-scoring game of attrition.  

By the end of the first inning’s top, Ford had switched out Sparks with freshman RHP pitcher Sydney Lessentine. 

“I think she was trying to be too perfect and trying to figure out the zone, and when she was kind of having some problems with that, some mechanics kind of flared up that were preventing her from being able to just stay relaxed and kind of work through that situation,” Ford said. “But, you know, great pitchers figure it out, and she is a very, very good pitcher.”

The bottom of the first saw sophomore RHP Ava Brown start against senior shortstop Koko Wooley. 

Wooley held steady. Brown pitched — she swung. Miss. Brown rubbed the ball on her pants and threw again. No swing. Next pitch, Wooley bunted, and, for a moment, sprinted. But she stopped in her tracks. It fouled. 

Then, Wooley watched as a pitch whizzed past her, becoming the first of many Aggies to strike out. 

Junior third baseman Kennedy Powell walked up with her bat in hand, quickly sending the ball in the air and reaching first base. Senior designated player Mac Barbara attempted to follow up, but while she didn’t send Powell home — she also didn’t strike out. Both advanced. Sophomore first baseman Mya Perez then took the bat. Walked. The three Aggies loaded the bases. 

Senior CF Allie Enright took the plate next. Brown paced, shaking the ball in her hand. One throw. No swing. Second pitch. Enright did nothing. Third, the ball was too far from the bat. It landed in the mitt. Fourth. Nothing. 

But with the fifth came flight. The ball landed in Brown’s hand directly afterward, and she sent it back to the catcher’s mitt to cut off the incoming Aggie — only for the catcher to fumble, Powell reaching home to score the Aggies’ first point, 1-4. 

Freshman second baseman KK Dement took the bat with three other Aggies on base, hitting it far into the air and allowing one to cross the finish line, 2-4. 

Those would be the only points scored in the bottom of the first — and the start of a point drought lasting until the top of the fourth, a spark lit by Florida sophomore 2B Mia Williams when she walked to bat. Lessentine, standing in the middle of the circle, stared. She threw the ball, the catcher’s glove squeezing it moments later. The next hit landed on Davis Diamond’s roof. 

Then, from nowhere, Williams sent the Lessentine pitch flying — out of the ballpark, barely inside the foul pole. She sprinted down the field to put the Gators up 5-2. 

Freshman DP Gabi Comia and senior SS Rylee Holtorf followed, both inching closer to success — until Falby found it, and Comia ran it home, 2-6. It was followed shortly after by Shumaker, whose bat sent Falby into her teammates’ arms. 

The bottom of the fourth arrived with Aggies in chaos. They find no success — and as quickly as they take control of the field, they lose it. 

In the top of the fifth, senior 1B Reagan Walsh stepped up to bat. She hit, fouling — but it was only a prelude to her subsequent homerun. 

In the bottom of the fifth, the Aggies, led by Powell, tried to bring it back. She sent the ball soaring dangerously close to a Gators’ glove — but the Florida spawn wouldn’t catch it in time, and Powell made it to the next base. Then, a Barbara hit would send her across the finish line, 3-7. Several batters later, Dement’s sacrifice fly sophomore pinch runner Scout Lovell home a winner, 4-7. 

But in the top of the sixth, the Gators took it home. Otis sent the ball flying — sending Falby and Holtorf to the final bag.

Freshman LHP Kate Munnerlyn, swapped in from Lessentine, held a frown. Powell didn’t move except for occasional head turns to watch the balls’ trajectories. Walsh walked to bat, and like it was nothing, sent it out the ballpark — followed by two more Gators running home. Outside, bystanders grabbed the stray ball and jumped in joy. A man laughed. The Aggies didn’t. 

The bottom of the sixth saw nothing akin to a comeback for A&M. All three Aggies to step up were retired consecutively, ending the game with not a bang — but a 4-12 whimper. 

Next, the Maroon and White take on Florida for the third and final game of their SEC opener on Sunday, March 9. 

“I mean, tomorrow’s a new day, so you don’t know what that’s gonna look like,” Ford said. “But I thought we had moments of really good and then moments where I just felt like we didn’t make it hard for them. … I felt like Florida did a really good job of keeping pressure on us throughout the game. And I don’t think we did.”