After a five-run fifth inning from No. 3 Tennessee, No. 21 Texas A&M dropped the series to the Lady Vols, 9-2, on Sunday at Davis Diamond.
The Aggies’ pitching staff lacked the spark found in Saturday’s 3-1 win, as the Maroon & White changed pitchers four times. Mistakes in the circle proved to be costly as A&M’s Emiley Kennedy hit four batters, and relievers Madison Preston and Shaylee Ackerman hit one apiece. The pitching staff combined to issue five costly walks.
“I think we battled through some adversity,” Texas A&M head coach Trisha Ford said. “Obviously, their game plan was to crowd the plate, and get hit by pitches.”
The Lady Vols kicked off the game by plating a run on a passed ball, and McKenna Gibson came home on a bases-loaded walk.
The Aggies made up for their woes in the circle by responding with an RBI single from Aiyana Coleman, and Trinity Cannon strutted home after Koko Wooley was hit by a pitch with the bases juiced to tie the game 2-2 in the first.
The Aggies’ offensive production would stop there, as all of their hits came in the opening frame.
“We got a little passive. I think we started to think too much in the box,” Ford said. “I think having consistency behind the plate of what’s going to be called and what’s not going to be called.”
Two innings scoreless innings passed before Giulia Koutsoyanopulos was hit by Kennedy’s pitch and rounded the bases on Kiki Milloy’s single in the fourth.
Tennessee’s Karlyn Pickens threw 120 pitches through 6.2 innings of work, striking out 10 of 25 batters faced.
“We got to make her throw more than four pitches in an at-bat,” Ford said.
“It’s a game of momentum, and that’s something you have to learn. We had some innings where I felt like we came in with the momentum, and then she went one, two, three. We got to make it hard.”
Tennessee quickly grabbed a hold of the momentum with a five-run fifth that added significant insurance for the Lady Vols. A walk, hit by pitch and fielder’s choice packed the bases, and Koutsoyanopulos doubled to clear them. A throwing error and a single sent two more Lady Vols home.
To cap off the finale, a bases-loaded walk scored another runner in the sixth, and the Aggies dropped their second conference series at Davis Diamond.
“I think we’re getting better from a three-game series standpoint,” Ford said.
The Aggies will have a chance to rest before a home series with Mississippi State, beginning on Saturday, April 8, at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs are 3-5 in SEC play and will come to Aggieland looking for a win to disrupt their three-game losing streak.
“We got a big series ahead of us,” Ford said.
