Aggies wrap up perfect weekend with 5-1 victory over St. John's
The Texas A&M softball team finished up the Texas A&M Invitational on Sunday, and the weekend couldn’t have gone better for Jo Evans’ squad.
After struggling heavily at the beginning of the season with losses to UT Arlington and McNeese State, many fans were ready to write off the season as a growing year for the young team. But the Aggies silenced the doubts by completely sweeping the Texas A&M Invitational, winning all five games pretty impressively. The weekend was capped off with today’s win over St. John’s, 5-1.
In a game that didn’t feature a lot of offensive flash from either side, the Aggies utilized their pitching and defense to get it done, holding the Red Storm to just three hits and playing clean defensively. It wasn’t until the third inning that the Aggie offense got moving, led by Kelbi Fortenberry’s leadoff triple. The Ags took the lead after three straight walks by St. John’s, giving A&M a 1-0 advantage. After a pitching change for St. John’s, Ashlynn Walls hit a sac fly to go into the 4th up 2-0.
However, the Red Storm responded quickly, taking advantage of a leadoff walk and hitting a double to bring home the runner on first.
Going into the fifth up 2-1, Jo Evans thought it would be a good idea to put in Makinzy Herzog for pitcher Kendall Potts. Although Potts did a great job of minimizing the damage, Herzog once again completely shut down any offensive hopes the Red Storm might’ve had. The sophomore transfer from Florida State allowed no hits the rest of the game and struck out six, throwing for more strikeouts on the weekend than any other pitcher in the tournament.
The Aggie bats came alive in the 6th with a leadoff double from Ashlynn Walls followed up by a successful bunt from Star Ferguson. The Aggie offense was once again in a good place to score. A groundout by Makinzy Herzog brought home one, and then a double by Kelbi Fortenberry down the first baseline brought home two more to give the Aggies a comfortable four-run lead.
Two more strikeouts from Makinzy Herzog in the 7th secured the win, as well as the weekend sweep for the Aggies.
Kelbi Fortenberry played a big part in the win, as a double and triple at crucial points of the game gave the senior from East Bernard a pair of RBIs.
“We still have a lot more learning to do, we’re really young,” said Fortenberry. “But you see people finally getting comfortable, so that’s exciting. We don’t want to peak too early, so I’m excited to see where we’ll be at the end of the season.”
With matchups against some top teams coming up next weekend, head coach Jo Evans knows how big these five straight wins were for momentum.
“We really needed that,” said Evans. “We were up and down last weekend. For us to get ourselves right and win in a lot of different ways with different kids stepping up at different times, I think was really important. We put ourselves in best-case scenarios so I’m really happy about that.”
The Aggies will travel to Cathedral City, California next weekend to compete in the Mary Nutter Classic against five different teams, including 3 of the top 4 ranked teams in the country.