No. 24 Texas A&M displayed a dominant performance in the finale of its final SEC road series on Sunday, topping Ole Miss, 13-8.
The Aggie offensive had the Rebels pitching staff in the palm of their hands and dominated throughout.
“To me, this is fun,” Texas A&M head coach Trisha Ford said. “That relentless, just getting after every pitch, every pitcher. I thought we did a really good job. We played clean defense today, and our pitching was good.
“Really we won that game in the batter’s box. It was a continual effort up and down the lineup to be able to put them away.”
The series-deciding game started off with Koko Wooley and Amari Harper reaching on back-to-back singles. Trinity Cannon drove in A&M’s first run of the day with a single up the middle.
Julia Cottrill then earned a walk to load the bases. With one out, Rylen Wiggins started off her impressive outing with a grand slam, catapulting the Aggies to a 5-0 advantage.
Their momentum did not slow down at all.
In the second, Star Ferguson walked to turn the lineup over with Wooley reaching as well.
With two runners on, A&M perfected a double steal as Ferguson came home on a throwing error by catcher Lexie Brady.
“She’s just been waiting,” Ford said of Ferguson, who finished 2-for-3. “She continues to work and work and work and that’s something that we preach and we talk about it on a weekly basis.
“She hasn’t gotten a lot of opportunities and she got her opportunity today and just did a tremendous job inside the batter’s box.”
Harper then singled up the middle to score Wooley for the Aggies' seventh run of the day.
The offense did not waiver after the Rebels put two runs of their own on the board in the bottom of the second inning. In the top of the third, the Aggies continued their dominant performance with Harper’s RBI triple and another Cannon RBI single for a 9-2 edge.
The Rebels made an attempt at a comeback in the fifth.
Doubles by Tate Whitley and Paige Smith and a triple from Savana Sikes brought in three runs, but they failed to get any closer.
As if the game was not already painted maroon, the Aggies added insurance in the sixth and seventh innings.
Grace Uribe laced a two-run single in the sixth, and another Brady error plated two unearned markers in the final frame.
With a key SEC series victory in hand, the Aggies return home to face Prairie View A&M on Tuesday at Davis Diamond.
“I want us to be hard-nosed, we’re gonna play the game hard, we’re gonna play the right way, but we’re not going to get pushed around, and we didn’t get pushed around this weekend,” Ford said. “Obviously Friday’s game didn’t go our way but at the end of the day, we punched back and kept punching.
“I’m excited about taking this feeling and applying it to the rest of our season.”
