The Texas A&M softball team was able to improve to 5-2 on the year after a 9-6 win over Tulsa Saturday afternoon. This was also their third win in a row.
A&M coach Jo Evans said she was pleased with the way her team’s offense performed in the game.
“Great to come out and get another win today,” Evans said. “I thought our hitters did such a great job. We keep talking about quality plate appearances, and yesterday I thought it was really exceptional, and today as well. Great to see [Makinzy] Herzog get comfortable. She’s so dangerous at the plate and really makes us go, so pleased to see what she’s doing out there, and [Kelbi] Fortenberry too. [Fortenberry] had lots of quality at bats, and she was doing a good job in that two-hole. You know, Grace [Uribe] I felt like she threw a lot of pitches at times, but she did what we needed her to do.”
After starting pitcher Uribe threw a scoreless top of the first, A&M’s offense plated three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Two of the runs came from a two-run RBI triple from Bre Warren.
Tulsa responded by scoring a run in each of the next two innings off of Uribe. However, the Aggies still led 3-2 going into the bottom of the inning. In that half-inning, A&M broke the game open by scoring five runs. Shaylee Ackerman and Jourdyn Campbell scored from a pair of bases-loaded walks, and then Makinzy Herzog followed with a bases-clearing three-run RBI double.
In the at-bat, Herzog said she was looking to be patient during the at-bat and wait for her pitch to hit.
“That’s when the new pitcher came in and I just had to stay in there and see some pitches and see what she was going to give me and it kind of came across the plate in that last pitch and I just got ahold of it,” Herzog said.
It was just one of the many timely hits A&M had during the game.
“The timely hits are super clutch,” Herzog said. “Getting those base runners on is really important and then having that clutch hits takes a lot of pressure off our team and our pitcher. Going out there and having a big lead helps us to relax a little bit and let us play our game.”
Tulsa ended up scoring two runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings off of Uribe to make the score 8-6 going into the bottom of the sixth.
However, Trinity Cannon put the exclamation point on the win with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth. A&M was now up 9-6 going into the seventh inning and it would also end up being the final score.
Herzog said the team was hoping to keep the foot on the gas tomorrow against Tulsa at 11 a.m. to complete the series sweep.
“It was really important that we won the first two games of the series, but we just got to make sure we do not ease up for tomorrow’s game and to know that the game is just as important as the two games we have already won,” Herzog said.