Aggies can't finish late comeback, drop opener to Ole Miss, 2-1
Coming off of a much-needed run-rule win over Sam Houston State on Wednesday, the Aggies looked to make some noise in conference play, sitting at 5-7 on the season coming into Friday night’s game against Ole Miss.
Unfortunately, the SEC woes continued for A&M. Despite out-hitting the Rebels 7-5, the Aggies couldn’t answer the Ole Miss offense when it mattered, falling on Friday night, 2-1.
The scoring started in the second inning after a hard-hit ball right at Shaylee Ackerman would bounce off her glove, allowing an Ole Miss runner to get to second. The Rebels singled on the next at-bat to take an early lead.
After trailing 1-0 for the majority of the game, the Aggies loaded the bases in the sixth with two outs. Kelly Martinez stepped to the plate, hitting a clutch infield single that got away from the shortstop to tie the game at one.
However, Ole Miss was able to answer immediately, loading the bases themselves in the top of the seventh thanks to a fielding error, a walk and a hit batter. A hard-hit ball off the glove of Dani Elder at third would bring home a Rebel run. The Aggies couldn’t recover in the seventh, falling to 5-8 on the season in SEC play and 27-12 overall.
Even in the loss, starting pitcher Makinzy Herzog pitched well once again, giving up just one earned run on five hits, sitting down four Ole Miss batters on the day.
“I thought Herzog was just terrific on the mound and gave us a chance to win the ballgame,” said head coach Jo Evans. “She got herself out of some tough innings. We don’t expect her to be perfect. I saw something in her eye that said she was ready to get it done. For her to pitch how she did tonight, that tells me she is back and ready to go.”
After what was an extremely tight matchup throughout, Evans believes this is a series the Aggies can and should expect to win.
“I told our kids to just keep competing. We expect to win the series, so I told them to come tomorrow ready to win a ballgame,” said Evans. “It’s a really disappointing loss. Sometimes these close ones where you fight back are tough and emotionally draining. We have to bounce back and come back ready to play.”
Game two of the series is slated for 2:00 p.m. tomorrow from Davis Diamond.