May 19, 2006
The Texas A&M softball team dropped their NCAA Regional opener to Lehigh, 4-3, on Friday afternoon before 855 fans on a wet afternoon at the UMass Softball Complex.
The loss drops the Aggies (33-18) into an elimination game with Albany (36-12-1) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (CDT). The game will air locally on Sports Radio 1150 The Zone.
Lehigh (42-12) will face host UMass (38-14) in a winners?â„¢ bracket game on Saturday at 11 a.m. (CDT).
Mountain Hawk pitcher Kate Arico (14-6) was in control until the sixth inning, not allowing more than one Aggie baserunner through the first five innings of play. Lehigh threatened in each of the first five frames, leaving eight on base in the game.
?First off, I tip my hat to Lehigh,? A&M coach Jo Evans said. ?I thought they played just great softball. They played very hard and aggressive and took advantage of opportunities. We got ourselves back on our heels from the very get go. We played very tentatively. We got a little shell-shocked in first inning when they scored those first couple of runs, and we just weren?â„¢t able to settle ourselves down.?
The Mountain Hawks quickly gave Arico a lead to work with, scoring two first-inning runs off A&M starter Amanda Scarborough (15-11).
With one out, Scarborough issued a wild pitch that moved two Lehigh runners into scoring position before getting the second out of the inning on a groundout. After quickly going ahead in the count to Julie Sterrett, the Lehigh right fielder drove an 0-2 pitch over the head of Ronda Smith in left field and off the top of the fence to bring home Kate Marvel and Ali Linsk with the first two runs of the game.
Lehigh extended the lead to 3-0 in the top of the third when Arico walked with two outs, moved to second on a base hit, third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch.
Second baseman Megan Conrad added an RBI single into shallow left field with one out in the fifth inning, putting the Mountain Hawks up 4-0.
A&M cut the lead to one in the sixth with three runs off Arico (14-6). Third baseman Jamie Hinshaw doubled to left field with one out, scoring Sharonda McDonald from first base. Then, first baseman Megan Gibson hit the next pitch over the fence in center field. The two-run shot was Gibson?â„¢s 12th home run of the year.
?That (the sixth inning) was a huge lift for us, and certainly something we would have expected to be able to do earlier in the game,? Evans said.
Lehigh brought in Patriot League Pitcher of the Year Lisa Sweeney in the seventh to close out the game. Sweeney issued a lead walk to Jami Lobpries and, after a Ronda Smith sacrifice, Sweeney fanned the final two Aggie batters to earn her fourth save of the year.
The win was the Mountain Hawks?â„¢ second ever in NCAA play, with the first coming back in 2001.
?As a coach at our particular level, our goal is to win the Patriot League Tournament and, for us, we certainly peaked last week,? Lehigh coach Fran Troyan said. ?Honestly, for a program like ours to even step on the field with a program like Jo Evans?â„¢ and Texas A&M, that in and of itself is an honor. I couldn?â„¢t be more proud of the kids in my program.?
Scarborough suffered the loss in the circle for A&M, going 4 1/3 innings and giving up eight hits, four runs (three earned) while walking three and fanning six. Lisa Gorzycki and Gibson combined for 2 2/3 innings of no-hit relief in the loss.
Arico gave up five hits and three earned runs in six innings of work while walking two and striking out four.
The Aggies will be facing Albany for the first time in program history on Saturday afternoon. A&M will be the designated visiting team.
?I just want our kids to get mad,? Evans said. ?We?â„¢ve got a bunch of great kids, I love coaching them, and I just took a pretty good bite out of them. I?â„¢m hoping that?â„¢ll be motivation for them to come back and fight. I just want to see us fight.?