Friday, February 12
College Station
3:00 PM
Texas A&M
vs
UCLA
No. 24 Texas A&M opens season with Aggie Classic
Feb 11, 2016 | Softball
COLLEGE STATION – No. 24 Texas A&M softball will kick off the 2016 season by hosting No. 7 UCLA, Colorado State and Wichita State at the Aggie Classic Friday through Sunday at the Aggie Softball Complex.
Action will begin Friday at 10 a.m. with Colorado State vs. Wichita State, while A&M will open the season against the Bruins at 3 p.m. CT and will close out the day with Wichita State at 5:15 p.m.
"It is exciting to open at home. We usually start the season on the road, but we feel like this is a great place for us to play," head coach Jo Evans said. "We feel good at home. We have a lot of teams that want to come here in the warm weather and play. We just decided to take advantage of that opportunity. With a younger team, it is nice to be home, but we are playing the No. 7 team in the country, so that will be a real challenge for us. We have a lot more depth and we are a lot more athletic this year. We have depth at every position, especially in the infield. It is nice to see people competing for spots, and we know we could open up the season with several different combinations and feel good about it."
The Aggies return eight starters and 15 letterwinners from last year's squad that finished 40-20 (12-12 SEC), and appeared in its 14th consecutive NCAA Regional, advancing to the Oklahoma Regional Final.
Offensively, the Aggies were led by sophomore Tori Vidales, who belted 20 home runs with a team-high 56 RBI and senior Cali Lanphear, who added nine home runs and 41 RBI.
In the circle, the Aggies look to replace Rachel Fox, who capped off her career with a 23-14 season. Senior Katie Marks returns following her 14-3 season, and will be joined by sophomore transfer Trinity Harrington and freshman Samantha Show.
Colorado State finished the 2015 campaign with a 27-29 (8-16 MWC) record and is looking for its first postseason appearance since 2003. The Rams are led by sixth year head coach Jen Fisher and return seven starters and 12 letterwinners from last season.
Coming off back-to-back 50-win seasons for the first time since 2002-2003, UCLA returns 14 letterwinners, six starters and three pitchers from last year's team which went 51-12 and advanced to the Women's College World Series. The Bruins were tops in the country in 2015 in batting average (.367), second in on base percentage (.467), tied for second in doubles (107), fourth in runs scored (7.92) and slugging (.608) and 11th in homers (89).
The Shockers, who return 15 players from last year's 32-23 (16-11 MVC) team, were voted first in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll. Seniors Brittany Fortney and Cacy Williams along with sophomore Mackenzie Wright were named to the MVC Preseason All-Conference Team.
Live streaming of each Aggie game this weekend can be seen live on SEC Network+/Watch ESPN and can be heard locally on KWBC 1550 AM. Live scoring for all games this weekend can be found at http://www.sidearmstats.com/tamu/softball.
To learn more about Texas A&M softball, log on to 12thMan.com or follow @AggieSoftball on Twitter.
Action will begin Friday at 10 a.m. with Colorado State vs. Wichita State, while A&M will open the season against the Bruins at 3 p.m. CT and will close out the day with Wichita State at 5:15 p.m.
"It is exciting to open at home. We usually start the season on the road, but we feel like this is a great place for us to play," head coach Jo Evans said. "We feel good at home. We have a lot of teams that want to come here in the warm weather and play. We just decided to take advantage of that opportunity. With a younger team, it is nice to be home, but we are playing the No. 7 team in the country, so that will be a real challenge for us. We have a lot more depth and we are a lot more athletic this year. We have depth at every position, especially in the infield. It is nice to see people competing for spots, and we know we could open up the season with several different combinations and feel good about it."
The Aggies return eight starters and 15 letterwinners from last year's squad that finished 40-20 (12-12 SEC), and appeared in its 14th consecutive NCAA Regional, advancing to the Oklahoma Regional Final.
Offensively, the Aggies were led by sophomore Tori Vidales, who belted 20 home runs with a team-high 56 RBI and senior Cali Lanphear, who added nine home runs and 41 RBI.
In the circle, the Aggies look to replace Rachel Fox, who capped off her career with a 23-14 season. Senior Katie Marks returns following her 14-3 season, and will be joined by sophomore transfer Trinity Harrington and freshman Samantha Show.
Colorado State finished the 2015 campaign with a 27-29 (8-16 MWC) record and is looking for its first postseason appearance since 2003. The Rams are led by sixth year head coach Jen Fisher and return seven starters and 12 letterwinners from last season.
Coming off back-to-back 50-win seasons for the first time since 2002-2003, UCLA returns 14 letterwinners, six starters and three pitchers from last year's team which went 51-12 and advanced to the Women's College World Series. The Bruins were tops in the country in 2015 in batting average (.367), second in on base percentage (.467), tied for second in doubles (107), fourth in runs scored (7.92) and slugging (.608) and 11th in homers (89).
The Shockers, who return 15 players from last year's 32-23 (16-11 MVC) team, were voted first in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll. Seniors Brittany Fortney and Cacy Williams along with sophomore Mackenzie Wright were named to the MVC Preseason All-Conference Team.
Live streaming of each Aggie game this weekend can be seen live on SEC Network+/Watch ESPN and can be heard locally on KWBC 1550 AM. Live scoring for all games this weekend can be found at http://www.sidearmstats.com/tamu/softball.
To learn more about Texas A&M softball, log on to 12thMan.com or follow @AggieSoftball on Twitter.
Players Mentioned
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