The Texas A&M softball team earned its first conference win at home on Friday night with a 6-3 victory over No. 23 South Carolina at Davis Diamond.
Tonight’s win snapped the Aggies’ two-game losing streak and advanced their overall record to 21-5, 2-2 in conference play.
A&M’s junior Haley Lee was a standout player of the night with a two-run home run to kick off the first inning. Lee leads the team in home runs with 11 so far this season, and in RBI with 24.
A&M head coach Jo Evans said the team spent considerable time in the bullpens this week after a collectively underwhelming performance at the plate in last weekend’s series. Evans emphasized the importance of one-on-one time with hitting coach Craig Snider, and Lee agreed that the individual conversations are helpful preparation.
“We talked about how she was going to come at us early in the count and she’s going to throw us a pitch that we wanted so we really needed to see what we wanted and I got it my first pitch, luckily, and I timed it up just right,” Lee said.
Freshman Grace Uribe is another Aggie that showed out with a great performance. Uribe relieved junior pitcher Makinzy Herzog from the mound after 3.1 innings and recorded two strikeouts while holding the Gamecocks scoreless.
Evans commended Uribe for her ability to maintain composure while in the circle and emphasized the importance of having the reliable pitching staff that the team does. Evans said Uribe has made the most of each opportunity she’s been given this season and was pleased with her performance as she closed out the bottom 3.2 innings of the night.
“We’ve been telling our pitching staff that we’re not just relying on one pitcher, and you saw that come into play tonight,” Evans said. “Typically, Herzog’s going to take that game and run with it, but she just didn’t feel great, it wasn’t her night. To be able to rely on another pitcher and the fact that that pitcher is a freshman, is really important. Every inning Grace Uribe gets is building on who she’s going to be in her career. All of these reps matter and she needs to make the most of them, and she has.”
As a veteran of the team, Lee said she’s proud of her teammate’s ability to come in and execute a game plan and said having an SEC series under their belt is a confidence boost for the team, especially the newcomers.
“Grace came in with a fight to win tonight, I was very proud of her. We talked about what we were going to do, and she just executed her plan very well,” Lee said. “I think now that we’ve played our first SEC series and this is now our second one, I think we know a little bit more of what to expect. The freshmen are now a little more experienced in how we work and how we play against SEC teams.”
Last weekend, A&M beat LSU on opening night but dropped the second and third game to the Tigers. Lee said being offensively aggressive from the start and not letting up as the game progresses is critical to finding success the next few nights and taking the series.
Evans agreed and said being offensively aggressive and having quality plate appearances are imperative to earning the win.
“We know we’ve got to keep our foot in the gas,” Evans said. “In the games we’ve lost, we scored early and then tailed off and didn’t continue to put pressure on their pitching. To me, that was a different story tonight. We made an adjustment from that, our two games at LSU. Timely hitting is everything.”
The maroon and whtie will be back in action on Davis Diamond on Saturday afternoon as they take on the Gamecocks in Game 2 of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.