COLLEGE STATION - Winner winner, Holiday dinner. For the second year in a row, the White team won the Maroon & White series 2-1, forcing the losing Maroon team to cook @AggieSoftball's annual holiday dinner.
An evenly matched, 5-4 first game gave White their first victory. Sophomore April Ryan began her dominant play with a single to left center, getting on base in each of her four at bats. White put the first points on the board with Cali Lanphear's RBI double down the right center gap bringing Erica Russell home for a 1-0 lead.
It was no surprise that a solo homerun by Ryan evened the score in the top of the fifth and the score would remain 1-1 until the top of the 7th, which Breanna Dozier opened with a solo homerun. Ashley Walters's one RBI homer brought the game to 4-1 in the top of the inning.
White came out bats blazing to win 5-4 behind runs from Vidales, a two RBI homer, and Massey to clinch the game.
Down a game, Maroon went ahead early and never relented to take game two 9-0 and even the series at one apiece. Ryan continued her impressive week with a two RBI single and reached home on a stolen base in the second inning and a grand slame in the third. A Dozier single RBI homer in the seventh closed the game at 9-0, helped by an incredible no-hitter performance by Lauren Ainsley.
With the series tied at one-all, the third and final game was exactly the kind of battle Coach Jo Evans expected. Maroon opened on offense with Ryan knocking out her third homerun of the series to give her team a 1-0 lead. Russell evened the score for White, coming home off a laser RBI single to left center by Tori Vidales.
The score stayed knotted at 1-1 until the top of the third when Ryan fired off her fourth homer of the series, followed quickly by Lanphear's first home run of the fall to bring the score back even at two all.
The White team took their first lead of the game at 4-2 on a deep RBI homer from Suzanne White. Maroon closed the gap at 4-3 when Hailey Rebar's single past first brought home Ryan from third.
A solo homerun by Russell just inside the foul pole in the bottom of the sixth bought the White team a 5-3 lead but Maroon was quick to answer when Rebar came home on a fielder's choice, putting her team at 5-4 and within striking distance. The comeback was cut short as Dozier got her glove on Ryan's line drive, giving White back-to-back victories in the series.
When asked about her team's performance and what she learned from the series, Coach Evans was nothing short of impressed.
“Well I'm excited that it was such a competitive series,” said Evans. “I love seeing it go three games. I thought April Ryan looked really good during this series, driving the ball as well as she did.
“Katie Marks went out today and threw a really nice ball game for her team. Lauren Ainsley yesterday, we saw some good performances from all of our pitchers. I liked how we competed each game. Two of the three games went down to the wire. It's been a really great offseason for us, the kids have worked hard so I'm looking forward to getting on the field in January and getting to play.”
When asked about her faith in the Maroon team's cooking, however, Evans was a little less confident:
“They better [cook us a good meal]! We expect a really great dinner and it's fun to be playing for something like that. Our kids are really competitive and it's going to be fun see Maroon in the kitchen cooking.”
The Aggies exited fall ball with a perfect 8-0 record and will open the spring season in Los Angeles at the SoCal Collegiate Classic February 6-8. To learn more about Texas A&M softball, log on to 12thMan.com and follow @AggieSoftball on Twitter.