The regional round of the NCAA tournament marks the beginning of the road to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. For Texas A&M that road began with a dominating 14-0 win over Texas Southern Friday. The Aggies (43-10) were one of the eight SEC schools to host a regional. 
After an almost two hour delay due to Texas State and Texas going 12-innings before the Aggies were set to start play. Despite the delay, A&M quickly scored in the bottom of the first inning. A&M scored three runs with two outs to take the early 3-0 over TSU. 
Texas A&M head coach Jo Evans said in the post game press conference, the goal coming into the College Station regional was to assert dominance.
“I wanted us to come out really aggressive,” Evans said told 12thman.com. “I wanted us looking to take extra bases and put some pressure on their defense. Offensively, I wanted us to get up there and attack and get our hacks. We took some walks but we weren’t looking to walk. We were looking to hit.  I’m really pleased at the energy that we gave out there.”
A&M took control of the game in the bottom of the third inning when they scored eight runs. Sophomore Samantha Show doubled to right allowing for Riley Sartain and Blake-Ann Fritsch to score and Sarah Hudek to advance to third base. Erica Russell continued the scoring when she tripled to center giving A&M the 7-0 lead. The Aggies tacked on four more runs in the inning to finish the third inning with 11-0 lead. 
Sartain said the team’s approach at the plate was to be as disciplined as much as possible.
“I think we were really hitting the pitches we wanted to hit,” Sartain told 12thman.com. “We were being patient when it was time to be patient, and we were being aggressive when it was time to be aggressive. We knew we were going to get our pitch, so we were trying to not miss that pitch and hit it hard.”
Junior Lexi Smith earned the win in the circle with a masterful two hit, nine strike out complete game performance. Smith moves on to 12-1 on the season. Following the game, Smith said she wanted to be in control of every pitch and staying focused. 
“I just really focused on getting ahead of the hitters, throwing my game, staying relaxed and getting ahead of batters and not throwing more pitches,” Smith said to 12thman.com.  ”That was pretty much the game plan and we stuck with it the whole game and it worked out pretty well.”
The Aggies will be back in action Saturday when they face Texas State—who defeated Texas 2-1 in extra innings— to try and to improve to 2-0 in the regional. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m.