Texas A&M softball wrapped up the three-game series against Tulsa with a 3-0 win over the Golden Hurricane on Sunday, Feb. 28, at Davis Diamond. The maroon and white advanced their season record to 6-2.
Game 3 started off slowly with little action at the plate for both A&M and Tulsa, with neither team able to score in the first five and a half innings. A&M graduate transfer Kelsey Broadus started the Aggies off in the circle — the newcomer recorded four strikeouts and allowed three hits throughout the 5.2 innings pitched.
“Pitching-wise, it was a good day for [Kelsey] Broadus,” Evans said. “There was havoc out there for sure. She stranded 12 runners, which means that our pitchers and defense did what we needed to do to get out of the innings. The fact that they didn’t score in all those opportunities says a lot about Broadus. She will get herself in some jams, but she’ll get herself right out.”
Junior Makinzy Herzog came in to relieve Broadus and finished out the game for the Aggies. Herzog only allowed one hit and secured her third win of the season while on the mound.
A&M junior Haley Lee’s three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth were the only runs recorded in the series finale. This was Lee’s fifth home run of the season, her first four on opening day, and led to the Aggies’ clean sweep.
Lee said the only thing on her mind while stepping into the batter’s box was to advance the runners and she was excited to not only advance them, but bring them home.
“That at-bat was a base hit type of mindset since we had runners on first and second,” Lee said. “I wasn’t looking to produce anything large, more so to move the runner and get an on-base type of hit. I guess from what you can see, it went further than expected and I am not complaining.”
Evans commended Lee for her hit and said taking advantage of the opportunity is what led to the Aggies coming out on top.
“Games like that sometimes just come down to taking advantage of that one opportunity you have, and we had a timely hit, and they didn’t,” Evans said. “They had plenty of opportunities and couldn’t get a timely hit, and we did with Haley [Lee] being there.”
Lee said with two tournaments under their belt, the team is beginning to settle into a rhythm and calm its nerves. The seasoned veteran said being aggressive offensively is one of the team’s goals and priorities.
“I think as a team we are settling in, especially now that we are playing other teams a lot. We get to see a lot of different things than doing inter-squad like we had been doing,” Lee said. “This week we are settled in and calmed ourselves down to focus on the main goals of getting outs, hits and producing runs.”
A&M will be back in action on Wednesday, March 3 as they take on Sam Houston for their first away-game of the season. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Bearkat Softball Complex in Huntsville.