Cannon's walk-off blast clinches series victory over No. 22 Gamecocks
Game #24: No. 19 Texas A&M 2, No. 22 South Carolina 1 (10 innings)
Records: Texas A&M (22-2, 2-0), South Carolina (18-4, 0-2)
WP: Emiley Kennedy (12-1)
LP: Alana Vawter (5-3)
Box Score
Long game? End it with the long ball.
In the late innings on Saturday, Trinity Cannon provided the heroics as No. 19 Texas A&M clinched the series with a 2-1 walk-off winner over No. 22 South Carolina in 10 innings.
"Wow," A&M head coach Trisha Ford exclaimed postgame. "Just a tremendous job of us continuing to fight. Our pitching staff gave us the ability to come and get more and more at-bats. I'm just really proud of them, to be honest."
Tied 1-1, Ford called upon ace Emiley Kennedy in the sixth to continue her Friday-night dominance.
After tossing a complete-game shutout in the series opener, "Lefty" hurled five scoreless frames as the deadlocked affair reached extras.
Following a top half of the 10th that featured a pair of reviews and the Gamecocks ultimately running themselves out of the inning, Cannon finally won it.
"Before I went up there, I said I'm hitting the outside drop ball," Cannon said. "Sure enough, it was a changeup, so they're pretty similar in speed and location. I just got my hands through."
With two outs, the senior blasted a 1-0 offering from Alana Vawter to dead center field for a solo home run, sending the 1,912 at Davis Diamond into a frenzy.
Cannon's eighth homer of the season was only the game’s eighth total hit.
"It was a great feeling coming home to those girls," Cannon said with a smile across her face.
It was also Cannon's second walk-off homer of the year.
That fact the ballgame remained even until the late stages can be attributed to Brooke Vestal's stabilizing relief appearance.
After starter Emily Leavitt walked the bases loaded and plunked Giulia Desiderio -- a .059 hitter -- in the second, Ford used a quick hook in favor of Vestal.
What followed was a Houdini-esque escape to minimize the damage on Vestal's way to four scoreless innings.
She punched out six, walked two and did not surrender a hit.
"That's the Brooke Vestal I know," Ford said. "She just did a really good job of coming out and being Brooke. Our hitters will tell you that they hate facing her.
"She did a really good job of coming and getting her ball to the correct part of the zone. That's something we've been talking about for the last two weeks."
Rather than waiting until the late innings as they did a night ago, the Maroon & White scored on South Carolina starter Sage Mardjetko in the first.
Capitalizing on walks to Jazmine Hill and Julia Cottrill, Aiyana Coleman smacked an RBI single to right to assume an early 1-0 lead.
The advantage did not last long due to Leavitt's command issues, but the two early runs remained the only markers until Cannon ended it.
Vestal and Mardjetko dueled valiantly until ultimately giving way to the aces Kennedy and Vawter in the sixth and fifth innings, respectively.
"The good thing is that Kennedy came to me and said, 'Hey, I feel really good, I'm ready to go,'" Ford said. "I love that."
With Cannon, Kennedy and Vestal each playing pivotal roles on Saturday, the Aggies have clinched an SEC-opening series victory.
They'll play for the sweep on Sunday at 1 p.m. CT.
"Obviously, this is huge," Ford said. "We have the series locked up. Tomorrow, I'm greedy. I'd like us to come out and win."
