March 19, 2006
The 18th-ranked Texas A&M softball team (20-9) fell short of beating the 4th-ranked Texas Longhorns (31-3) in the championship game of the Judi Garman Classic.
?It was great to play in the championship game,? commented A&M head coach Jo Evans. ?We gave ourselves a chance, but we just couldn?â„¢t quite get a timely hit. I thought our kids competed very well.?
Both teams played solid defense, not committing any errors in the field.
The lone run of the game came in the bottom of the fourth for Texas. Megan Willis singled with two outs to drive in Desiree Williams from third. The run put the Longhorns up 1-0.
After walking Jamie Hinshaw to start the fourth, Texas starting pitcher Cat Osterman retired the next nine batters before walking Gibson in the top of the seventh.
Scarborough, then, laid down a sac bunt to move Joy Davis, who was pinch-running for Gibson, to second. Ronda Smith drew a walk to put runners on first and second with one out. Rocky Spencer flew out to left and Jami Lobpries struckout to end the inning.
With the loss, Gibson fell to 10-3 on the season. She threw six complete allowing one run on six hits. Gibson struckout three and did not walk a UT batter.
Osterman improved to 19-1 on the season with the win. She threw seven complete, giving up two hits, walked three and struckout 11.
?Our kids came to play,? Evans said. ?They did a great job against Washington to get to the championship game. They got some big hits and shut down a good Pac-10 and I was excited about that. I think this tournament is a real confidence boost coming into Big 12 play.?
The Aggies will return to action on Wednesday in Waco as they open Big 12 Conference play against Baylor. First pitch for the single game is set for 6:30 p.m.
Log on to AggieAthletics.com to access live stats and play-by-play audio for the match-up.