May 11, 2006
Jami Lobpries sealed No. 16 Texas A&M?â„¢s 5-0 victory over the No. 2 Texas Longhorns with a grand slam in the top of the sixth off UT starter Cat Osterman in front of 907 fans at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.
The Aggies' next game will be at 1:30 p.m. against Missouri. Live audio and stats will be available on aggieathletics.com and 1150 The Zone.
?We worked so hard during the last week on pressure situations and making the plays,? commented A&M head coach Jo Evans. ?I really felt good in the Oklahoma game and I thought they were ready to go. I was really surprised how it went. Defensively we were unable to make the plays in that game. Afterwards I told them, ?'Listen, we can get this done and beat Texas?â„¢.?
The home run served as Lobpries?â„¢ fourth of the season and first grand slam of her Aggie career and improved A&M?â„¢s season record to 33-16 while the Longhorns fell to 49-7.
A&M?â„¢s first run of the game came in the top of the fifth as Ronda Smith hit her third home run of the season, a line shot that cleared 220, putting the Aggies up 1-0.
Megan Gibson earned walks in all four of her trips to the plate. Gibson also recorded the complete game shutout, her 14th complete game and third shutout of the season. With the win she moved to 16-4. She held the Longhorns to just four hits and did not allow a free base while striking out one UT batter.
?The plan was to get ahead and once we did that, I threw curves or a screw (balls) to get ahead in the count,? said Gibson. ?From there I threw to their weakness trying to get them to hit ground balls or a pop fly.?
?This is the best Megan has done, she was remarkable,? Evans said. ?She was ahead of hitters all day. This season whenever we have scored a bunch of runs in an inning she has stayed sharp through the rest of the game and has gotten the job done.?
The loss was Osterman?â„¢s second of the season, dropping her record to 32-2. She lasted five and a third giving up all five runs. Osterman struck out 12 and allowed three walks, all to Gibson.
Meagan Denny relieved Osterman after the Lobpries grand slam. She worked an inning and two-thirds, giving-up just one hit and no runs.
Earlier in the day A&M lost to Oklahoma. Despite out-hitting the Sooners 9-7, the Aggies fell to the Sooners 13-6 in A&M?â„¢s opening game of the Big 12 Championship.
The loss dropped A&M to 32-16 while the win improved OU?â„¢s record to 36-18-1 on the season.
The Aggies took a 4-2 lead into the top of the second where the Sooners plated six runs on two hits on two errors. A&M wasn?â„¢t able to push another run across until the bottom of the fourth.
OU added three runs in the top of the seventh to solidify the win. Holly Ridley tried to mount a comeback with a solo homerun, her fifth of the season, in the bottom of the seventh.
Senior Rocky Spencer was 2-for-4 in the game with three RBI and a run scored.
Scarborough (15-9) was tagged with the loss after giving up eight runs, five earned on three hits, three walks and three hit batters.
Lisa Gorzycki was brought in to relieve Scarborough in the top of the third. She worked five complete allowing just five runs on four hits. Gorzycki recorded the Aggies only strikeout. She also allowed three free passes.
D.J. Mathis earned the complete game victory, improving to 13-6. She allowed six runs, one earned on nine hits. Mathis struck out three and walked two.