Thursday evening, No. 18 Texas A&M took on the top ranked team in the nation – Florida State. The clash between two nationally ranked teams lived up to the excitement.
Both teams were unable to score for the first five innings of the game. The Seminoles came close in the top half of the fifth, but a spectacular play at the fences from junior Erica Russell halted the ‘Noles attack. 

Erica Russell with the robbery!!!!#SCTop10 @AggieSoftball @airwrecka03 #MaryNutter pic.twitter.com/l7ADU7LqMl
— Jami Lobpries, Ph.D (@JamiLo2) February 24, 2017

Following the game, A&M head coach Jo Evans told 12thman.com Russell’s catch was the turning point for the Aggies  
“We made plays when we needed to make plays,” Evans said to 12thmam.com. “Erica Russell’s catch was phenomenal. That fired us up. When she came off that field her teammates were so happy for her.” 
Sophomore Samantha Show tied her career best 15 strike outs in a complete game shutout of the top ranked team in the nation. Since the start of the season, Show has struck out 35 batters in 30.2 innings pitch with a 0.46 ERA.
“Samantha Show was terrific tonight,” Evans told 12thman.com. ”You saw in the later innings that she started throwing that changeup for strikes. She kept Florida State off balance. She went right after hitters.”
The Aggies took the lead off a two-run home run from sophomore Kaitlyn Alderink, in the bottom of the sixth inning. Sophomore Keeli Milligan reached base the at bat before Alderink, Evans said both at-bats played huge role in the game. 
The Aggies played Long Beach State in the first game of the tournament defeating them 5-0 to move to an 11-0 record on the season and help Evans reach her 800th win as Texas A&M’s head coach. 
The Aggies are back in action today as they play No. 21 Arizona State and No. 23 BYU for the second day of the classic.