Vestal pitches gem, No. 19 Ags top No. 22 Gamecocks to close sweep

Game #25: No. 19 Texas A&M 2, No. 22 South Carolina 1
Records: Texas A&M (23-2, 3-0), South Carolina (18-5, 0-3)
WP: Brooke Vestal (2-0)
LP: Jori Heard (4-1)
Save: Emiley Kennedy (3)
Box Score

Break out the brooms.

Behind Brooke Vestal’s gem, No. 19 Texas A&M escaped a late threat and topped No. 22 South Carolina on Sunday afternoon, 2-1, as Trisha Ford claimed her first top-25 sweep in Aggieland. 

Holding a two-run lead heading into the seventh, A&M needed just three outs to seal the deal.

Ford turned to Emiley Kennedy to finish the job, but not before the Gamecocks created some traffic on the basepaths.

Leading off the inning, an error on a deep fly to right field put South Carolina’s Kianna Jones on third, who later scored on an RBI single from Karley Shelton — the Gamecocks’ first hit of the day.

With no outs and runners on second and third, Kennedy shut the door, leaving the tying run stranded.

“I said to her, ‘Alright. Here we go. Runner at third base. No outs. Get us out of it.’ [Kennedy] just said, ‘Give me the ball,’ Ford said postgame. “I am just going to enjoy her this year. She is coming into her own.”

Prior to the late-inning drama, Vestal was in rhythm, pitching six innings and racking up six strikeouts on 20 batters faced.

“I wanted Brooke to build upon yesterday. We started to see the Brooke Vestal that I know,” Ford said. “They weren’t figuring her out at all.

“That’s the Brooke our hitters hate to face.”

Despite her stellar outing, Vestal felt confident that Kennedy would come in and take care of business in the final frame. 

“This is my favorite staff that I have been a part of,” Vestal said. “For Emiley to come in and close it was really special, but knowing on any given day I can close for Shaylee (Ackerman) or Shaylee can close for Emily Leavitt, we are all so excited for each other.”

After hitting a walk-off homer in the 10th inning on Saturday, Trinity Cannon added another game-deciding hit to her resume as her two-run triple was all A&M needed to finish the sweep.

Zoe Kelton, TexAgs

Opening SEC play with a sweep, Texas A&M outscored South Carolina 7-2 on the weekend.

“Without her, I don’t know that we win those ballgames,” Ford said. “She has senior leadership and does a really good job of attacking pitches.”

South Carolina’s combination of Jori Heard and Sage Mardjetko in the circle allowed three Aggie hits, the lowest total of the weekend. 

But despite minimal offense, the game served as an opportunity for the Aggies to gut out a low-scoring affair.

“Pitchers had a great weekend. Defense had a great weekend,” Vestal said. “To do well, you have to play two parts of the game, at least, really well.

“Any given weekend, it can be a different part of the team showing up for us.”

Not playing a midweek game, the Aggies will have some time off before facing No. 23 Mississippi State in Starkville next weekend. The series begins on Friday, with first pitch set for 4 p.m. CT.

The road trip offers the chance to sweep another top-25 foe.

“It feels great,” Ford said. I will take a lot more. If I do a lot more of those, I can stay here longer, so that’s really good.”