Aggies to face Baylor after 12-0 win over Penn in CS regional

GAME #55: Texas A&M 12, Penn 0
RECORDS: Texas A&M 40-15 (1-0 NCAA Tournament); Penn 30-19 (0-1 NCAA Tournament)
WP: Lauren Ainsley (13-7)
LP: Alexis Borden (17-11)
S: None
BOX SCORE: LINK

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College Station - On Sunday when the No. 13 Texas A&M softball team was lucky enough to qualify as the final regional host of the 2013 NCAA Softball Tournament, A&M head coach Jo Evans was quoted as saying, “Right now, we’re thinking about Penn. Right now, we’re laser focused on our regional and what we need to get done.”

Friday night, the hosting and top-seeded Aggies took the first step towards that goal by beating the fourth-seeded Penn Quakers by a score of 12-0 in a run-ruled contest at the Aggie Softball Complex in game two of the College Station regional.  Second-seeded Baylor defeated the third-seeded Arizona Wildcats in game one of the weekend, 7-0.

“I’m very pleased with the way our ball club came out tonight,” said Evans. “We took advantage of the mistakes their pitchers made and we understand that we can only be where we want to be by taking care of business against Penn.“

In the bottom of the first inning, the Aggies started their scoring barrage when third baseman Amber Garza hit a single to center field, scoring lead-off batter Jenna Stark from second.

After a single by freshman Cali Lanphear one batter later, junior Nicole Morgan added another run when she singled to score Garza from second, giving A&M the early 2-0 lead.

As if that wasn’t enough damage to the Ivy League champion Quakers, junior Cassie Tysarczyk then proceeded to hit a three-run bomb over the fence in center field to give the Aggies a 5-0 lead after just one inning.

“During the first at-bat, I had a 2-0 count and I had the green light,” said Tysarczyk. “If she was throwing the ball over the plate, I was swinging at it. Even if I would have gotten a sacrifice fly out of that, I would have been happy. I would have been doing my job.”

Three Quaker outs later, it was more of the A&M bats in the bottom of the second.

With two outs against her, Lanphear stroked a single to right field and first baseman Nicole Morgan followed it with a walk.

Tysarczyk , who was awarded her diploma by A&M AD Eric Hyman and President R. Bowen Loftin, again proved why she has had one of the hottest bats on the team with a
two-on, two-out single to right, scoring Lanphear from second.

“Getting the diploma before the game was really awesome,” stated Tysarczyk. “My family came in from out of town, but honestly, I was focused on the game.”

Shortly after, starting pitcher Mel Dumezich laced a single into the outfield before catcher Meagan May hit her 13th home run of the year over the wall in center field to make the score 10-0 in favor of the hosting Aggies.

A&M would go on to add single runs in the third and fourth innings off the bat of Morgan and relief pitcher Lauren Ainsley before the game was called due to run-rule in the middle of the fifth inning.

In total, the combined performance between Dumezich and Ainsley was arguably one of the best of the season. The duo combined for one hit, zero runs and eight strikeouts over five complete innings of work.

The Aggies now face former conference foe Baylor in the third game of the College Station regional at 2 PM on Saturday afternoon. With a win, A&M would place themselves in Sunday’s championship series.

“There aren’t going to be any surprises [against Baylor],” stated Evans. “Baylor is used to us and we are used to Baylor, so we understand their style of play. It’s going to be familiar, but it will be nice to get out there and get after it.”