Texas A&M snaps SEC Tournament skid with win over South Carolina

For the first time ever, 12-seeded Texas A&M claimed an SEC Tournament win after defeating 13-seeded South Carolina, 5-3, on Tuesday night in Florida.

“Really proud of our ball club to come out here and win a game,” Texas A&M head coach Jo Evans said. “It’s been a long time coming for us. It feels like it's nice to get the monkey off of our back. You look at last weekend, we played really well.

“Getting a win against Arkansas and didn't end up winning that series but we competed so well against the No. 4 team in the country. For us to be able to take that confidence and come in today, it’s really important.”

The first four innings remained quiet for the Gamecocks, as starting pitcher Emiley Kennedy dished out four scoreless innings.

On the opposite end, Aggie batters struggled until the bottom of the third inning. With runners on second and third, Katie Dack stepped up to the plate, but the Gamecocks intentionally walked her to avoid her powerful swing.

With bases loaded, Trinity Cannon took matters into her own hands and nailed a double that cleared the bases and gave the Aggies a 3-0 lead.

The Aggies added another run to their lead in the fourth thanks to an RBI groundout from Cayden Baker. 

However, the Gamecocks began to fight back and eventually gained confidence at the plate.

In the fifth inning, an RBI groundout and double scored two runs. Another RBI single sent another runner home and made it a one-run game, 4-3.

An A&M error and walk loaded the bases with two outs, but Grace Uribe came in to relieve Kennedy and escaped the inning.

“What worked for us is being confident in each other,” Cannon said. “It gets really hard when someone makes an error, and it breaks momentum, but our pitchers have a lot of trust in our defense, and we have a lot of trust in them. Our pitching staff tonight was really poised.”

Needing a response in the bottom of the fifth, Koko Wooley fired off an RBI double to add some cushion to the Aggies’ lead. Shaylee Ackerman entered the circle in relief of Uribe and closed out the sixth and seventh innings, allowing no hits and no runs.

“I’m really proud of Shay[lee] Ackerman to come in there and close it,” Evans said. “Just a good team win for us.”

The Aggies did not have much downtime between wrapping up the regular season on Sunday afternoon, flying to Florida on Monday and facing South Carolina on Tuesday. Now, A&M will take on fifth-seeded and tournament host Florida at its home stadium on Wednesday at 4 p.m. CT.

“I don't think you can see any game as too big or too little,” Cannon said. “We were really excited to make history tonight, but I think this is a good starting point for us to go on a roll.”