With their backs against the wall, No. 5 Texas A&M softball team faced adversity head to top McNeese State 10-3 after mounting a comeback to avoid the upset. 
Early in the game, A&M, which is ranked second overall in the SEC, trailed the Cowgirls 2-0. The McNeese attack began when junior Lexi Smith hit Alexandria Saldivar giving the Cowgirls their first base runner of the inning. Smith would later issue a walk that would go on to score another run for McNeese.
Texas A&M head coach Jo Evans said it was uncharacteristic for her top-five squad to come out and have a few innings where it wasn’t playing to its full potential.
“We got off to a slow start we didn’t look good offensively,” Evans said. “Defensively, we misplayed a couple of balls that I wasn’t happy about at all. We’re too good to play the game like that so I was not thrilled about the second inning.” 
The normally hard-hitting A&M offense was having a tough time getting solid contact with the ball resulting in two scoreless innings for. However, in the third inning, junior first baseman Tori Vidales hit her team best eighth home run of the season to even the score at 3-3.
Following the game, Vidales said although she welcomed the deep ball which landed in the Reed Arena parking lot, she was more concerned with getting a hit to score junior Erica Russell and sophomore Keeli Milligan and cut the McNeese lead.
“I think a lot about being a situational hitter,” Vidales said. “So, in that inning that I did hit the homerun I was thinking ‘runners on second and third I just need to square the ball up and hit it deep so that way we can get a run.’ I was just thinking one run at a time and we’ll get them back but I just happened to square it up.” 
Following the crucial hit from Vidales, the A&M offense began to connect with the ball and get on base, a lot of which was virtually non-existent in the first two innings. The Aggies produced three more runs in the bottom half of the third to take 6-3 lead over the Cowgirls (25-11). 
A&M junior Trinity Harrington pitched three and two-thirds innings relief for Smith. Harrington was awarded the victory after giving up one hit and striking out two. 
“I thought Trinity Harrington came in and was lights out,” Evans said. “She looked really good. She threw us ground balls. Trinity went out there ready to play, and I was pleased to see her step in there. You could see her just take over and take charge of the game.”
A&M scored four more runs in the fourth inning as it strung together a few hits and drew walks to get into scoring position give them to 10-3 advantage.
No. 5 Texas A&M will be back in action Friday as they host Oklahoma State in its only non-conference series of the year. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at the Aggie Softball Complex and can be seen on SEC Network Plus.