Tori Vidales putting together stellar resume for Aggie Softball

Senior first baseman Tori Vidales, who has been a cornerstone of Jo Evan’s lineup for four years, has left her mark on the Aggie Softball program in more ways than one.

Vidales, who is leading the team in RBI with 49, has been productive at the plate in her final season. But this is no surprise — in the previous three seasons she’s led the team in categories like home runs, walks, run scored among others.

“I think just not trying too hard and not trying to do too much at the big moment — I think being able to prepare for each at-bat, like making sure each at-bat is just as important as the next one,” Vidales said of her mindset at the plate. “It kind of allows you to not feel so much pressure in those big moments. So, being able to just make every at-bat just as important has allowed me to be a little bit more relaxed, especially in those pressure situations.”

A pivotal moment came for Vidales this season against Ole Miss on March 9 — she blasted a three-run home run to put the team in front and break the RBI record previously held by Megan May. By breaking the RBI record, Vidales has permanently etched her name in the record books. In addition to being the all-time leader in RBI, she’s currently chasing home runs, runs and walks — as of now, she’s second all-time in all of these categories.

Matt Koper, TexAgs

Tori Vidales is the Texas A&M all-time leader in RBI and total bases and is moving up the leaderboard in several other categories as well. 

She said she knew she was close to breaking the record after talking about it a few days before Ole Miss game with pitcher Lexi Smith. Kaitlin Lee, the pitcher she hit the home run off of and a friend of hers, sent the ball to one of her teammates after the game.

“I hit it and I didn’t think it was going to be like a big deal, like they were going to announce it or anything, but I hit it and I was like, ‘I think that might’ve broken it,’” Vidales said. “But I was honestly really excited because that put us ahead. So, we were winning and when I crossed the plate Lexi kinda grabbed me and was like, ‘You broke it, you broke it!’ and I was like, “Oh my God, I did, I did it, I did it!’ Then for them to come on the speaker and announce it and everybody to kind of roar, the crowd roared. It was awesome to be able to soak in that moment, especially at the Aggie Complex. It’s our last go-round there, so for me to be able to break it there it puts the cherry on top.”

Vidales continued her record-breaking year and her timing couldn’t have been any better. In the final home series of the season, Vidales cranked a two-run home run over the center field wall at Davis Diamond to break the all-time total bases record and hit the first home run in the history of the stadium. Later in the game, the senior from La Porte, TX would hit another two-run home run to add to the total bases record. As it stands now, Vidales has 453 total bases — passing the previous record-holder Megan Gibson (443).

“You look at Tori and she’s chasing so many records and it doesn’t phase her,” head coach Jo Evans said. “It doesn’t make her feel tight or feel pressure or anything. It’s almost as if it just so happened that she ended up chasing all these records, being close to all these records — not looking like she’s intentionally trying to do it. So it’s fun to have a player that when they leave you go, ‘Wow she held the RBI record, she’s second in home runs,’ all these things and the impact she’s had. And also I think a lot of players can set records, but not all of them get their team to the College World Series and that’s something Tori’s been able to do.”

Her presence and leadership in the locker room are some of her qualities that are intangible, Evans said. Evans counts on Vidales to be vocal and show up when the moment matters the most. Last season, she hit a home run and a two-RBI double in the final game of the Regional against Texas and a home run in the last game in the Super Regional against Tennessee.

“She had struggled through the season and when it came to crunch time, she hit some huge home runs for us in Tennessee in the Super Regional, showed great leadership in the regional,” Evans said. “She got hot when we needed her to get hot and that’s what great players do.”

Not only is Vidales playing at a high level for Aggies, she’s spent her last two summers playing for the Mexican National Team and will join them again this summer in hopes of qualifying for the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.

Senior catcher Ashley Walters said she’s really enjoyed playing with Vidales and the two have continued to push each other to get better over their time with the program.

“I think she’s made a really big impact on the team,” Walters said. “She’s a really big vocal leader for us. She’ll say the hard thing even when people don’t want to hear it, and I think that’s really what a team needs. You’ve got to have someone’s that’s going to be hard on you at all times. She’s the one who’s like that for us.”

Vidales said being able to play for A&M has been a dream come true and is happy to have contributed and left her mark on the program.

“I didn’t take any other visits, I didn’t go anywhere else, this was my first offer and I took it immediately,” Vidales said. “I knew I wanted to be an Aggie and you get that gut feeling when you come on campus. I think every softball player who’s committed somewhere has felt that and for me to feel it the first time on campus anywhere, it was pretty special.

"Just realizing throughout the years everything that A&M stands for I think it’s just so amazing to be a part of something so much bigger than yourself — especially the history, you can see on the wall right here all the All-Americans and for my name to be up here with all these All-Americans, national champions, it honestly makes me speechless. I can’t believe that my name and my picture are right there. Just being able to contribute to this program, I know there are much bigger things ahead. Just to be able to say I was a part of it is really special to me.”