Texas A&M
Harvard
No. 20 Softball Picks Up Two Wins Friday
Mar 19, 2010 | Softball
March 19, 2010
Harvard Box Score | Long Beach State Box Score
SAN DIEGO - Sophomore pitcher Rebecca Arbino threw nine shutout innings and freshman Meagan May drove in six runs to lead the No. 20 Texas A&M softball team to a pair of victories on Friday in the San Diego Classic II tournament at the SDSU Softball Stadium. The Aggies cruised past Harvard, 10-1, in six innings before winning a 4-2 decision over Long Beach State.
Arbino (13-3) went 2-0 on the day allowing just two singles. She did not walk a single batter and struck out seven.
May led the Aggies offensively going 4-for-7 with a double, two home runs and six RBIs.
"Teams are having a hard time knowing which side of the plate to throw Meagan," said A&M head coach Jo Evans. "She goes to school on her hitting. She knows what pitchers are going to throw her and how to make adjustments in an at-bat and that makes her dangerous. She shows great maturity at the plate for a freshman."
Texas A&M (24-6) outscored its competition, 14-3 and outhit its opponents 20-10 with a .345 team batting average in the two games. The Crimson dropped to 4-10 and the 49ers fell to 11-13 in the losses.
"I was really pleased with our patience at the plate today," said Evans. "We strung a bunch of hits together and the team just looked really good. In the second round of at-bats our players were really attacking the ball."
Against Harvard the game was scoreless through four frames and it took until the third inning for the first hit of the game to be recorded. After Arbino gave up a bloop single, however, she struck out the next two to end the inning.
The Aggies recorded their first hit in the fourth with a line-drive single to right field by senior Alex Reynolds. A&M proceeded to load the bases in the inning, but could not push a run across.
Freshman Lauren Schwirtlich led off the next inning with a walk and the Aggies never looked back, rattling off five hits for six runs. Junior Kelsey Spittler scored the first run (Schwirtlich) with a single to right. May then lifted her 11th homer of the year over the left field fence for a three-run shot. Reynolds connected for her second single of the game before freshman Melissa Dumezich lined a two-run home run to left to give the Aggies a 6-0 lead.
In the sixth, Texas A&M stayed hot and batted through the lineup a second time after starting the inning with four straight singles. With senior Macie Morrow and Spittler on base, May posted her fourth RBI of the game with a shot up the middle. Spittler crossed the plate on a wild pitch and Reynolds and Orsak also notched RBIs in the frame.
With A&M ahead, 10-0, Harvard plating its only run of the game with a two-out RBI single by Melissa Schellberg in the bottom of the sixth.
Arbino started in the circle and threw five scoreless innings for the win. She did not allow a walk and gave up two singles.
Rachel Brown (4-4) evened her record after allowing six runs on seven hits in four and one-third innings pitched.
Long Beach State scored first in A&M's second game of the day. In the top of the first, the 49ers hit back-to-back one-out singles before the Aggies committed a two-out error that allowed Ashley Weber to cross the plate from third and get LBSU out to an early 1-0 advantage.
The Beach added a second run in the third when Nalani St. Germain led off with a base hit and was scored on a single up the middle by Caitrin De Baun.
The Aggies came back and answered with three runs in the third. Orsak and Schwirtlich started the inning with singles to put runners on first and third. Orsak crossed the plate for the first run on a double steal and Spittler laced a stand-up triple down the right field line to score Schwirtlich from second. May followed with an RBI double to left center to give the Aggies a 3-2 lead.
May tacked on an insurance run with a solo home run to left center in the fifth.
Arbino (13-3) threw four hitless innings of relief work to earn her second win of the day. She did not allow a walk and struck out one. Dumezich started in the circle and allowed two runs, one earned, on five hits. She walked one and fanned two.
"Becca was fantastic against Long Beach State," commented Evans. "Mel and Becca complement each other so well."
Also strong for the Aggies offensively, Spittler hit 4-for-7 with a triple, two RBIs and three runs.
Texas A&M plays two more games tomorrow as part of the San Diego Classic II. The Aggies take on No. 25 UMass at 11 a.m. before facing UIC at 1:30 p.m.
