The Aggies returned to the friendly confines of the Aggie Softball Complex and earned something that had become scarce in the last two weeks, a victory.

The Texas A&M softball team earned a much needed victory by a score of 2-1 against the Texas State Bobcats on Wednesday. Head coach Jo Evans spoke about the pitching performance of Rachel Fox, who improved her record to 20-12 on the season by allowing only one run in a complete game performance.

“Rachel did a great job,” Evans said. “The only thing I wasn’t happy about was the four straight balls to lead off the fourth inning that they scored the run off of. I thought she went out and did a nice job and was confident out there.”

The Aggies (35-17, 9-12 SEC) Rachel Fox was stuck early with the bases loaded and no outs against a Bobcats team that came ready to play and unafraid of the Aggies. Fox recovered and got a Texas State player on a pop out and she got a grounder to first baseman Breanna Dozier that turned into a double play to get the Aggies out of an early jam.

The Aggie infield looked a bit different against the Bobcats today, as freshman staple Kristen Cuyos did not start for the first time this season. She was relieved by fellow freshman Erica Russell, who was making her first start at shortstop all season. She started off the game struggling, committing two errors in the first two innings. As the game settled down, Russell began to get comfortable and made the plays necessary for the Aggies.

“I just tried to find the umpire’s zone and we kind of had to work with it a little bit,” Fox said. “We had a couple of players that were new to their positions due to some injuries so that was a big deal in getting our defense in order.”

Cali Lanphear sent a Randi Rupp offering just over the right field wall to give the Aggies the early 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the first. Ashley Walters continued the home run party with another solo home run in the third. Lanphear spoke about toughness of the hitters staying consistent against a good Texas State pitching performance.

“The approach is to get good pitches,” Lanphear said. “Coming off of Florida and LSU these past couple of weeks prepared us for Rupp’s speed to where it seemed normal to hit.”

The Bobcats (29-20, 11-6 Sun Belt) cut the lead down to one with an RBI single from Kimberlin Naivar after a stolen base from Danielle Warne put herself in scoring position. Texas State couldn’t put any offense together the rest of the game as A&M rode its horse to the win.
The Aggies continue their homestand with the final SEC series of the season against the Ole Miss Rebels on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.