No. 14 Aggies Drop Two in Cathedral City

Thursday, February 23

Cathedral City, Calif.

12:00 PM

Texas A&M

8-3

(#1) Florida

10-0

Texas A&M

Florida

Feb 23, 2012 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Texas A&M Athletics

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. - The 14^th-ranked Texas A&M softball team (8-4) dropped a pair of decisions on day one of the Cathedral City Classic. The Aggies fell to No. 1 Florida (10-0), 6-4, before giving up a 15-3, six-inning run-rule to New Mexico (10-1).

"If we feel sorry for ourselves, we're in big trouble," head coach Jo Evans said. "We have to bounce back and play well tomorrow."

The Aggies fought hard against No. 1 Florida, rallying from a 5-0 deficit to a final 6-4 loss.

Senior Natalie Villarreal doubled to left-center to lead off in the top of the first against the Gators. Junior Meagan May drew a walk behind her and, with one out, sophomore Taran Tyler and junior Mel Dumezich worked through long at bats but were struck to strand Villarreal and May.

In the bottom of the first with two runners in scoring position and two outs, Dumezich worked through an at bat from the circle and shut down the final batter on a called strike. The third base umpire ruled that timeout had been called before the pitch, though, and the batter was brought back to the plate. With two outs and a full count, Dumezich fanned the batter again for the strikeout.

Florida scored first, on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third after the bases were loaded on walks. With the bases loaded again, sophomore Emily Albus caught a fly ball in left and hurled the ball home where May tagged a runner out for the inning-ending double play.

The Aggies only had three hits through five innings. In the bottom of the fifth, Florida scored four runs on a fielder's choice, a single and a sacrifice fly to take a 5-0 lead.

With two outs in the top of the sixth, junior Sydney Shannon homered over right-center to narrow the gap to 5-1 but a rebuttal home run by Florida in the bottom of the inning pushed the Gators' lead back to five runs.

Trailing 6-1 entering the seventh inning, the Aggies looked determined to make a comeback. Sophomore Nicole Morgan doubled to left-center to start the rally and was replaced on the base paths by freshman Brittany Clopton. A single by Amber Garza gave the speedy Clopton time to score from second before an infield single by senior Lindsey Sisk put Garza in scoring position.

Villarreal singled to right field for her third hit of the day to load the bases. An RBI fielder's choice put Sisk out at third but scored Garza as A&M narrowed the gap to 6-3. With one out, May singled to right field to send Villarreal home. A&M kept the 6-4 score through the end of the game as it stranded two runners on the last out despite a big rally at the plate

Dumezich (4-2) took the loss for A&M after giving up four earned runs on five hits and seven walks in six innings of work. Florida's Hannah Rogers (6-0) earned the win. The pitcher gave up nine hits in seven innings. The Aggies put four blemishes on the perfect 0.00 ERA Rogers had maintained through the beginning of the season.

The Aggies couldn't hold the momentum entering game two, however. A&M had a three-run fifth inning but struggled through the top of the sixth, giving up nine runs on seven hits, including a grand slam and two other bombs to fall 15-3 to New Mexico.

"I could give a lot of credit to New Mexico right there," Evans said. "They came out and crushed the ball. They were really aggressive and they also made some really nice plays early-on where we were starting to fret and they just made plays. We finally get something going and I just felt like our hitters were so passive. Our pitching just couldn't hold them. Our pitchers struggled all day long."

The Lobos quickly took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a pair of singles and two-RBI double. New Mexico struck again in the second inning when three batters who had reached on walks scored on a pair of RBI singles. In the top of the fourth, the Lobos used a sacrifice fly to pull ahead to 6-0.

In the bottom of the fifth, A&M started a late comeback. Garza drew a walk and was followed onto the bags by Clopton, who beat out a sacrifice bunt to reach first. A single up the middle by Brittany Walker scored Garza and a single to left field in the next frame by Villarreal put Clopton at home. Villarreal was 4-for-7 on the day from the plate.

Shannon grounded out to the first baseman for the second out of the inning but the play gave Walker time to score the 3-6 run.

A&M had a rough time in the top of the sixth and couldn't stop the bleeding as New Mexico scored nine runs on seven hits while cycling through three pitchers. Freshman Kayla Klein (0-0) saw two innings in the circle while Dumezich pitched to two batters before freshman Lauren Ainsley (0-0) threw one inning and got the Aggies out of the sixth-inning jam with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout.

"In our first game it was all about the walks and in this game it was all about putting the ball on the plate," Evans said. "We worked hard for those three runs and when you're a pitcher you've got to go out there and shut them down."

The Lobos kept the 15-3 lead through the next half-inning to run-rule the Aggies in their final game of the day. The loss was the first run-rule against A&M since 2010.

Sisk (4-2), who started the game in the circle, gave up six earned runs on seven hits in three innings for the loss. New Mexico's Kaela DeBroeck (6-0) earned the win after giving up three earned runs on six hits in six complete innings of work.

Tomorrow the Aggies will face No. 5 Washington at 12:30 p.m. CST and BYU at 3 p.m. CST. Both games will be aired live on 95.1-3 The Zone HD, making them available worldwide on any smartphone or HD radio. Go to RadioAggieland.com to download the app. To learn more about Texas A&M softball, log on to AggieAthletics.com.