Tag: Aggies Softball

Texas A&M softball jumps a few spots across the polls after 5-1 start in SEC play

Texas A&M continues to shoot up the rankings after another SEC series victory over a Top 25 team.

The Texas A&M softball team (25-3, 5-1 SEC) is proving to be a complete team after a few questions about the competition before entering SEC play. You can throw that out of the window as the Aggies have gone 5-1, defeating No. 23 South Carolina and No. 20 Mississippi State (USA TODAY/NFCA Coaches) over the last two weeks.

They outscored their SEC opponents 29-13 and hit six home runs across those six games. Even with her rough outing in game three against Mississippi State, Emiley Kennedy has shown herself to be one of the better pitchers in the country. While it is still early in the season, A&M looks like a team that can enter the Top 10 if they can keep up this pace.

All major softball polls have moved the Aggies into the Top 15 following back-to-back SEC series wins over Top 25 teams.

Check out the full USA TODAY/NFCA Softball Coaches Poll.

Rank Team Record Points Change
1 Oklahoma 27-1 794 (26) –
2 LSU 24-1 771 (6) –
3 Texas 24-3 727 –
4 Oklahoma State 24-3 692 –
5 Georgia 13-4 666 –
6 Duke 22-2 637 –
7 Tennessee 22-4 610 +1
8 Washington 20-4 584 -1
9 Stanford 22-5 545 –
10 Florida 25-4 512 –
11 Clemson 21-6 461 +1
12 Texas A&M 25-3 432 +1
13 Alabama 22-5 392 +1
14 UCLA 17-6 371 +1
15 Missouri 22-6 369 -4
16 Virginia Tech 21-4-1 306 +2
17 Florida State 18-8 280 -1
18 Arkansas 22-6 245 +2
19 California 21-7 193 -2
20 Mississippi State 21-6 190 +1
21 Arizona 20-7-1 130 +1
22 Baylor 16-8 101 -3
23 USC 21-7 78 –
24 Boston University 20-3 66 –
25 Auburn 14-6-1 59 –

Others Receiving Votes

Oregon (55), Louisiana (43), Kansas (40), Kentucky (25), Texas State (19), Miami (6), Grand Canyon (1).

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‘Sundays are hard’: Trisha Ford explains 1-run loss vs. No. 21 Mississippi St. to snap 8-game win streak

“That’s what I talked to the team about,” she said. “Sundays are hard, Sundays we have to figure out how to come out here and grind it out.”

The Texas A&M softball team had its eight-game winning streak snapped on Sunday afternoon with a narrow loss against Mississippi State.

The No. 21 Bulldogs (21-6, 3-3 SEC) avoided the sweep with a 6-5 victory, giving the No. 17 Aggies (25-3, 5-1) their first conference loss of the season. Texas A&M coach Trisha Ford spoke to the media postgame.

“I thought we just didn’t do a great job of executing our gameplan,” Ford explained. “We had a couple of opportunities there. The zone was pretty tight for both teams and we didn’t do a good job of executing and kind of using that to our advantage. That’s just how it goes, they had more fight in us. That’s what I talked to the team about.

‘Sundays are hard, Sundays we have to figure out how to come out here and grind it out.'”

The Aggies had the tying run at third base in the top of the seventh inning but were unable to get the runner home.

“We were in the right part of the lineup for us to do some damage,” Ford recalled. “We just ran out of time.”

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Texas A&M baseball adds another pitcher from the transfer portal

The Aggies get their second pitching commitment from the transfer portal this month with Tanner Jones committing to the program.

A week after getting two transfer commitments the Aggies add another from the portal as former Jacksonville State pitcher Tanner Jones announced via social media that he was headed to Central Texas to join Coach Schloss and company. The right-handed pitcher will bring a 7-3 record from last season and over 100 career strikeouts to the rotation, hopefully providing some stability.

The baseball team had a very roller coaster ride of a season with the team never really clicking and hitting on all cylinders. One aspect of that was finding consistency across the pitching lineup. There was a point in the season when the Aggie starting pitching didn’t log a win for multiple weeks. A&M is hoping Jones can become a mainstay in the rotation allowing Coach Schlossnagle to replace his TBD with an actual name.

Tanner jones 2023 snapshot:

  • ERA – 4.67
  • WHIP – 1.34
  • Oppo Batting Avg. – .256
  • Strikeouts – 84

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Softball – No. 19 Texas A&M drop final two games of series against South Carolina

The Aggies get shut out two games in a row getting swept by South Carolina

The final two games of this series were polar opposites. One was a defensive battle with only one run being scored by South Carolina (29-12, 6-8 SEC) and the other an 0-8 final score to run-rule Texas A&M (26-15, 8-9 SEC). Coach Ford will have to refocus her team with only six SEC games remaining in the regular season if they want to have a chance to host a regional.

Game two SUmmary:

With runs coming at a premium in this game the Aggies missed a big opportunity in the top of the fifth inning. After a Julia Cottrill double and a Koko Wooley bunt put runners on third and first base with only one out however a strikeout and groundout ended the inning.

South Carolina was able to break the goose egg in the final inning of the game with a single through the right side scoring the game-winning run of the game.

Final Score: Aggies 0, Gamecocks 1 – W: Kennedy, Emiley (8-4); L: Ochs, Karsen (7-3)

Game three SUmmary:

South Carolina’s pitcher Donnie Gobourne showed why she is the top pitcher on the Gamecocks roster. She only allowed two hits the entire game to Amari Harper and Julia Cottrill while striking out seven along the way to a complete game.

The Aggies were never in this game and were run-ruled after a three-run home run in the sixth inning to shut out Texas A&M 0-8.

Final Score: Aggies 0, Gamecocks 8 – W: Gobourne, Donnie (8-1); L: Ackerman, Shaylee (5-6)

Texas A&M will return to Davis Diamond on April 19th looking to get back on track against the Texas State Bobcats.

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Game Three Recap: Softball No. 21 Texas A&M vs No. 3 Tennessee

The Aggie put up an impressive fight against No. 3 Tennessee, but ultimately lose the series 1-2

Well, No. 3 Tennessee (29-3) showed exactly why they were ranked in the top five in Sunday’s game. No. 25 Texas A&M (22-13) failed to take advantage of nine free bases and stranded 8 runners on base. Coach Ford has some good things to take away from the weekend, but this game got away from them a few innings into the game.

Both teams started off struggle pitching giving up free bases. The Aggies started off by hitting a batter after a single. Then both runners advanced on a passed ball with one scoring. To add insult to injury, they hit two more batters and walked the third for another free score.

Tennessee had their own issues on the mound walking Keely Williams then a few batters later giving up three singles in a row to Trinity Cannon, Ayiana Coleman, and Rylen Wiggins. Coleman’s hit scored Williams, and after Wiggins made it to first base Koko Wooley was hit by a pitch for the second score.

Tied 2-2 neither team could crack the stalemate and it was trending towards another low-scoring game. But the Aggie hit another batter in the fourth and two base hits put them down 2-3. Texas A&M had a chance to tie in the bottom of the frame, but Riley Valentine was called out trying to score.

Then in the fifth inning, the wheels officially fell off. Fielding errors, hit batters, and wild pitching led to five runs being scored ballooning the lead to 2-8. Another inning of rough pitching in the sixth saw another Tennessee batter hit, another throwing error, then a walk gave them a free score extending the lead 2-9 for the Volunteers. The Aggies never got the bats going and the final score was 2-9 dropping the series 1-2.

Final Score: Aggies 2, Volunteers 9 – W: Pickens, Karlyn (7-3); L: Kennedy, Emiley (5-3) 

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Game One Recap: Softball – No. 21 Texas A&M vs No. 3 Tennessee

The Aggies battle hard but drop game one in the series to Tennessee in a 10-inning defensive outing.

No. 21 Texas A&M (21-12) went back and forth with No. 3 Tennessee (28-2) in a pitching and defensive battle that went into extra innings. Between both teams, there was only one hit through the first seven innings. The Aggie coaching staff had to be pulling out their hair as Texas A&M hitters stranded 9 runners and had the bases loaded twice but could not score until late.

There’s not a lot to say about this game other than Emily Leavitt and Shaylee Ackerman really stepped up to keep the game winnable. After a solid two innings from Leavitt, the Vols put Trinity Cannon and Rylen Wiggins on base via a hit-by-pitch and a walk. Then with two outs, Tennessee walked Allie Enright to load the bases, but a strikeout of Amari Harper would leave the Aggies scoreless stranding three runners.

Leavitt maintained the goose egg on the scoreboard through five innings only allowing one hit and striking out seven batters along the way.

The Aggies once again had the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth with two outs but hit it right to second base for the third out causing them to leave the inning empty-handed. Ackerman stepped in and after a wild pitch, she settled in getting the Aggies into the top of the tenth inning before Tennessee finally started to get a few things going. A double and a single by Tennessee put runners in scoring position, but unfortunately after playing so well the defense gave up a very costly error that put two scores on the board.

Now in a must-score scenario the Aggies tried to rally, and it started off with an Enright hit to center field. Then mother nature needed to give the earth a little bath causing an hour and a half delay in play. When they finally got back on the field the tying score was at home plate. Enright was able to eventually get to third base and with two outs a wild pitch allowed her to score cutting the lead in half.

After a full-count walk to get Morgan Smith on base, Julia Cottrill hit a single to left field putting runners at first and second. Cannon has been hitting great in this situation lately, but even with decent contact on her hit, the right fielder made a routine catch to end the game 2-1 with Tennessee taking game one.

A loss is a loss, but to battle the No. 3 team in the conference to a 2-1 loss through 10 innings showed that when they are dialed in defensively, they can play with the best in the country.

Final Score: Aggies 0, Volunteers 0 – W: Rogers, Ashley (11-0); L: Ackerman, Shaylee (5-5) S: Karlyn Pickens (2)

Game two will take place at 1 pm at Davis Diamond on Saturday.

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Game Recap: Softball No. 25 Texas A&M vs Lamar

The Aggie softball team gets their 20th win of the season after beating Lamar 3-2 in a mid-week battle

The No. 25 Texas A&M softball team has been playing some good ball lately to the point D1Softball has them ranked as high as 15. However, after scoring 25 runs over the weekend against a top-15 team the Aggies struggled at the plate for most of the game. It took all seven innings for Texas A&M to put Lamar away with a walk-off hit.

The Aggies just couldn’t anything going as both teams traded scoreless innings until the bottom of the third. Keely Williams, who probably could’ve been named freshman of the week after the Kentucky series, got a single through the left side then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error. Morgan Smith would get hit by a pitch putting runners on first and third. On a double steal, Smith got thrown out at second, but it allowed Williams to score to take a 1-0 lead.

That lead only lasted one inning as Lamar hit two home runs in the top of the fifth to go up 1-2. Trisha Ford made the switch to the closer Emily Leavitt, and she was lights out.

With Leavitt keeping Lamar in check the Aggies were able to tie the game with a Koko Wooley single scoring Julia Cottrill from second base. After hitting a batter Leavitt and a sac bunt, she struck out the final two batters to get them to the bottom of the seventh with a chance to win it.

In almost a mirror image of the bottom of the third lead batter, Williams hit a double into left center. Smith with the sac bunt advanced Williams to third while she got thrown out at first. Lamar intentionally walked Cottrill to get to Trinity Cannon who was 0-3 on the day so far. Well, Cannon took that personally and hit a laser down the left-field line for a walk-off single to take the win 3-2.

Final Score: Aggies 3, Cardinals 2 – W: Leavitt, Emily (7-4); L: Niedenthal, Cameron (2-4)

The Aggies will be back in action on March 29th at 6 pm at Davis Diamond to take on UIW for the second-midweek game.

Check out some highlights from the Texas A&M softball official Twitter account.

 

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Game Three Recap: Softball No. 21 Texas A&M vs No. 11 Kentucky

The Aggies win the series but end the weekend on a down note getting run-ruled by Kentucky losing 10-2

No. 21 Texas A&M (19-11) was put on the ropes early and could not do enough to answer No. 11 Kentucky (20-7) who run-ruled them, returning the favor from Saturday.

Tisha Ford has made it a point to her pitchers that she needs more from them once SEC play started. However, it’s been a little bit of a mixed bag so far and Sunday morning was a perfect example of what she was trying to avoid. A&M’s starting pitcher gave up two hits and five runs after facing five batters. Ackerman would get pulled and Uribe allowed three hits and 3 runs after facing four batters. So, before Texas A&M got their first out in the game Kentucky was already up 8-0. Kennedy would come in to stop the bleeding, getting out of the inning without allowing any more scores.

Even though the pitching struggled, there were also multiple fielding errors and Kentucky came out of the inning with six hits and eight runs with the Aggies committing four errors. Texas A&M was able to mount a comeback in game one after being down 5-0, but no such comeback was on the horizon for the Aggies on Sunday.

Emily Kennedy gave her teammates a chance to put them back in the game by leaving Kentucky hitless through the bottom of the fourth inning. Unfortunately, she received no help as they would go on to only get two hits and strand four runners on base. The Wildcats would take advantage by adding two more runs to go up 10-0 almost guaranteeing an early end to the day.

As bad as the day was going to this point one of the traits of this team is their will to never give up. With the game on the line, Julia Cottrill hit a two-run home run to cut the lead by two. Only needing one more score to extend the game Trinity Cannon would battle through a 12 pitch at bat that ended in a walk. Koko Wooley represented the game by extending the run but grounded out to the pitcher for the final out of the game.

Final Score: Aggies 2, Wildcats 10 – W: Schoonover, Stephanie (12-1); L: Ackerman, Shaylee (5-4)

The Aggies will be back in action on March 28th at 5 pm at Davis Diamond to take on Lamar for a midweek showdown.

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Double Header Recap and highlights: Softball – No. 24 Texas A&M vs No. 11 Kentucky

The Aggies put 24 runs on the board to take the series in double header against Kentucky

No. 24 Texas A&M (19-10) headed to Lexington Kentucky to start their second conference series against the No. 11 Kentucky Wildcats (19-7) on Friday. However, mother nature had other plans and the game got postponed to Saturday forcing the teams to play a doubleheader. One of the things I’ve come to admire about how coach Trisha Ford teams her team focused and holds them accountable. After giving up five runs in the first inning of game one the team never wavered and completed a comeback win, then went on to run-rule the Wildcats in game two.

game one recap

The first inning probably couldn’t have started much worse than it did with the Aggies going three and out, then the Wildcats having a five-hit five-run inning.

Texas A&M would cut into the lead with a three-run second inning off an RBI single by Rylan Wiggins, a sac fly by Grace Uribe, and Amari Harper scoring on a wild pitch.  Going into the top of the fourth, Kentucky still held a 5-3 lead, but that would change when A&M Consolidated product Aiyana Coleman went yard over the left field fence tying the game 5-5.

The tie was short-lived as Kentucky took the lead for the second time with the runs in the bottom of the fourth to go up by two before Trinity Cannon hit a sac fly to left field to score Keely Williams in the top of the fifth. The Wildcats answered in a major way by scoring a massive four- runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to put them up 11-6 heading into the last two innings of the game.

Once again looking to cut into the lead, the Aggies put two runs on the board with RBI singles off the bats of Williams and Morgan Smith. Down by two runs in the final frame, the Aggies needed some quality hits and boy did they get them. The scoring started with a homer to left field, followed by an infield hit by Allie Enright that scored Koko Wooly to tie the game at 11 apiece. With runners on first and second, Williams hit a three-run homer to center field to take the late lead 14-11.

Not going away Kentucky hit a two run home-run to cut the lead to one with two outs, but Shaylee Ackerman closed out the game striking out the final batter to secure the win.

Final Score: Aggies 14, Wildcats 13 – W: Ackerman, Shaylee (5-3); L: Lacatena, Alexia (7-2)

game Two recap

This game was never in doubt with the Aggies scoring in every inning minus the second and got a much-needed early ending after a quick turnaround from game one.

The Aggies started off modest with a single from Cannon that scored Julia Cottrill for the lone score in the first inning. Then in the third, Wooley hit a two-run double down the left field line followed by an infield ground out by Amari Harper to score Cannon giving the A&M a 4-0 lead early in the game.

After two more Aggie batters reached base safely due to being walked, Freshman Keely Williams was back at the plate for an encore performance from game one. On the first pitch Williams cleared the center field fence for her second three-run home run of the day, pushing the lead to 7-0.

Cannon closed out the scoring with a sac fly to plate Morgan Smith. The Aggies 8-0 lead placed them in run-rule territory. Wanting to add some cushion to the lead in the top of the fifth, Wiggins hit a single through the left side scoring Harper. The last score of the game would come from Freshman Aiyana Colman with a solo shot to right center putting the Aggies ahead 10-0. Even though Leavitt walked a few batters in the bottom of the fifth it didn’t matter because she managed to get out of the inning without giving up any hits or runs allowing Texas A&M end the game a few innings early.

Final Score: Aggies 10, Wildcats 0 – W: Leavitt, Emily (6-4); L: Gayan, Sloan (0-2)

The final game will be on March 26 at 12pm close out the series before they head back to Davis Diamond to take on Lamar in a midweek showdown

Check out some highlights of the doubleheader from the official Texas A&M Softball Twitter account

Game Recap: Softball – No. 21 Texas A&M vs Louisiana Tech

The Aggie softball team gets back to their winning ways with a 6-3 win over Louisiana Tech

No. 24 Texas A&M (17-10) got back to their winning ways by beating Louisiana Tech 6-3 in a midweek matchup. Tech was working to get out of College Station with a win, but the Aggies completed the comeback with a few home runs to come out on top.

After going scoreless on Sunday in the series finale again No. 17 Georgia the Aggies got on the scoreboard early. Koko Wooley reached first base after being walked and promptly stole second base then advanced to third off a single by Keely Williams. Texas A&M scored on a sac fly by Julia Cottrill allowing Wooley to tag up and score.

Rough pitching in the top of the third saw Tech hit a home run and multiple walks for two free runs, allowing them to go up 3-1. But the Aggies were not going away quietly, and Gracyn Coleman hit the second sac fly of the night to score Star Ferguson to cut the lead by one.

Inning five is where the Aggies started to pull away by adding a few insurance runs. With a runner on first Davis Diamond would see the return of the Howdy Hat with Cottrill blasting a pitch over the fence in left field to put the Aggies up 4-2 with no outs. Not to be outdone, Rylen Wiggins snuck a homer just over the center field wall for her own two-run RBI.

Emily Leavitt, who has carved out a role as the team closer, put any hope of a Louisiana Tech comeback to bed over the next few innings. Leavitt retired six of the final seven Tech batters while allowing no hits to solidify the win, giving the Aggies some much-needed confidence before heading to Kentucky this weekend.

Final Score: Aggies 6, Tech 3 – W: Leavitt, Emily (5-3); L: Melnychuk, Brooke (4-4)

The Aggies will travel to Lexington, Kentucky on March 24 – 26 to take on the Kentucky Wildcats.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1

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