Seldom does the War Hymn ring true anymore, but Sunday afternoon at the Aggie Softball Complex, it did as Texas A&M (45-10) said goodbye to longtime rival Texas (33-26) after sawing off the Longhorns 3-1 to advance to the Super Regionals for the first time since 2013.
“I just really wanted our team to focus on us today, not get caught up in the rivalry, I know that can happen,” Evans said of the highly-anticipated matchup. “I thought our kids handled that really well and the crowd was a huge help to us today.”
Tori Vidales pushed the Aggies ahead in the fourth, belting a two RBI double off the top of the left field fence, scoring Samantha Show and Erica Russell. The double ended the day for Texas starter Tiarra Davis (8-11).
For the game, Vidales finished just 2-for-4, but was the lead catalyst for the A&M offense, driving in all three Aggie runs scored. On defense, Vidales sealed the win after stopping a hard-hit grounder from Stephanie Wong and stepped on first for the final out of the game.
“Tori Vidales just being Tori Vidales,” Evans simply summed up Vidales’ performance. “Steps up and gets the double and two RBI, so really proud of Tori and how hard she has worked.”
A controversial call at the plate ended A&M’s attack in the fourth, as Keeli Milligan was called out trying to steal home from third on a wild pitch that flew high off Texas catcher Taylor Ellsworth’s glove. Ellsworth though was able to retrieve the errant pitch and toss it back to reliever Erica Wright who tagged out Milligan on a bang-bang play.
That run was not needed, though, as A&M starting pitcher Show (19-6) threw a complete game, and allowed the lone run on a mere four hits.
“Sam was great on the mound, just did such a nice job making pitches,” Evans said of Show’s outing. “Sam was on a roll, you look at the number of pitches she threw today, that’s unbelievable in seven innings to keep it under 100. Really on her game today, I thought she did a really nice job.”
In total, Show tossed just 89 pitches and her efficiency was something the Longhorns hitters could not solve all day long, precisely painting the right corner of the plate.
“Being a lefty, she was throwing a lot out and really the change-up was a pitch that we were struggling with,” Texas right fielder Kaitlyn Washington said of Show. “For the righties, the inside pitch was what they were struggling with.”
The Horns threatened to cut into A&M’s lead in the fifth after getting the first two batters aboard, but Riley Sartain turned a hard-hit ground ball right to the bag at third into a double play back to first, allowing the Aggies to escape the inning without allowing a run.
“I didn’t really freak out, we had already scored our three runs so I had some insurance,” Show said after allowing the two base runners. “I was really confident in rolling a ground ball, Riley did an awesome job and I was so pumped to get that hard ground ball to third base and to then turn two – it kept the energy up and confidence going.”
Texas struck first in the bottom of the second as Washington’s slow grounder to second was enough to keep Kaitlyn Alderink from trying to make a throw home, electing for the force out at first instead, scoring Mickenzi Krpec from third.
The scoring play was set up on the previous at-bat in which Tuesda DerMargosian slapped a sharp grounder that popped off Sartain’s glove at third and flew back over shortstop Kristen Cuyos’ head into left field, allowing Krpec to advance from first to third.
“We give up the run in the one inning, but didn’t panic one bit,” Evans said. “It was great that we got an out in that situation and kept the game close.”
The Horns’ slim lead was short-lived, however, as Tori Vidales led-off the inning with a solo home run that just snuck over the right field fence and fell just past a leaping Washington’s glove.
“I said earlier to our ball club that great players come up in situations like that where the opponent scores a run,” Evans said of the timely homer. “Tori has an opportunity to take the momentum away from them immediately – hits the home run and gets us right back in it.”
After saying so long to one orange and white team, A&M advances to the Super Regionals to face another UT – conference foe Tennessee in Knoxville next weekend. Although the Volunteers took a close series against the Aggies to close the regular season two weeks ago, Evans feels her team will be ready to go for round two.
“I think we still have a lot on the table,” Evans said of advancing to the next round. “I think when we played Tennessee before, we left some things on the table and we weren’t as sharp as we expected to be. This is great momentum for us going into Super Regionals.”