No. 24 Texas A&M softball took home the series win against Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, in an offensive battle that led to the road victory.
Out of the 13 total hits, the Aggies produced at least one hit in six innings out of the game and scored in five to maintain a manageable lead over the Rebels. Ole Miss also racked up ten hits of its own but fell short to the maroon and white in the slugging battle.
A&M started its offensive explosion in the game’s first at-bat with three back-to-back singles. Junior 1B Trinity Cannon’s single pushed the first run across the plate. Junior 3B Rylen Wiggins cleared the loaded bases and hit a booming grand slam over the left field fence. The Aggies were up five runs and four hits in the first inning of the game.
The A&M lead extended to seven in the top of the second inning. Senior LF Star Ferguson applied pressure with her aggressive base running and reached home on an Ole Miss error. Freshman 2B Amari Harper managed another RBI single. Ole Miss answered with a home run and two RBIs of their own but could not successfully chip away at the Aggies’ five-run lead.
The maroon and white kept the momentum punching in the top of the third inning, and Harper hit her first career triple to the right field fence, along with a single from Ferguson and Cannon. The Rebels could not square around to sophomore RHP Emily Leavitt’s pitch movement and were down 9-2 to the Aggies in the bottom of the third inning.
The Rebels did not go down without a fight and punched back in the fifth inning with four hits and three runs. Now 9-5, the A&M lead was quickly shortening. After Ole Miss hit two doubles and a triple, senior LHP Madison Preston came in to relieve Leavitt, but the Rebels were familiar with the pitching after facing her in Game 2 of the series. Preston allowed zero runs for the rest of the inning despite a walk and hitting a batter.
The Aggies managed four more security runs in the last two innings of the game despite the Rebels tailing closely behind. Wiggins doubled in the top of the sixth inning, her sixth double of the season, and junior PH Grace Uribe produced two RBIs with her single. With more aggressive base running, Cannon and Harper both scored during an Ole Miss throwing error and continued to shake up the competition.
Ole Miss hit two home runs in the bottom of the seventh inning in an attempt to combat the offensive explosion from A&M but took the 13-8 loss in the Ole Miss Softball Complex on Sunday, April 23.
This road series win against Ole Miss has now set A&M with the most conference wins since the 2018 season, a successful milestone in the start of the Trisha Ford era.
A&M softball will return home for a match against Prairie View A&M University on Tuesday, April 24, at Davis Diamond and will host Missouri for another three-game series starting on Friday, April 28.