The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas A&M
Texas upends Aggies, 3-0, in top-10 softball battle
04.06.2005 | Softball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Chez Sievers (Mission Viejo, Calif.) went 3-for-3 with two RBI and Cat Osterman (Houston, Texas) tossed her Big 12-leading 11th shutout of the season, shutting down an Aggie offense that entered Wednesday's game batting .353, and holding them to two hits, as the fourth-ranked Longhorns defeated No. 6 Texas A&M, 3-0, on Wednesday night in the teams' first State Farm Lone Star Showdown match-up. Texas' (29-5, 4-1 Big 12) victory snapped Texas A&M's (34-3, 5-1 Big 12) 18-game winning streak.
The teams squared off in front of a UT and McCombs Field record crowd of 1,437, as Texas earned another 0.5 point to push Texas' lead in theState Farm Lone Star Showdown standings to 8.5 points to A&M's 3.0. The winning school needs 10 points to win the title.
MicKayla Padilla (Cedar Park, Texas) also had a multiple-hit game, going 2-for-3 with one run scored. Texas also pushed its record against ranked teams to 8-4 this season.
Texas plated all three runs in the bottom of the second inning, benefiting from a trio of A&M fielding errors.
After a scoreless first for both teams, Rachael Cook (Anna, Texas) led off the bottom of the second with a single to left field and moved to second when Megan Willis (Chandler, Ariz.) reached first on an error by the A&M second baseman. Christina Gwyn (Keller, Texas) then singled to move Cook over to third before a misplay by Aggie centerfielder Sharonda McDonald allowed her to score.
Texas then loaded the bases with one out when Padilla singled to left field. A fielder's choice play at home kept Texas off the board before Sievers came up with a two-out single down the left field line to plate Gwyn and Padilla.
From there, Osterman held the Aggies scoreless as she allowed only one hit over the final five frames.
Osterman (16-3) tossed her 16th complete game and held the Aggies to only two hits while striking out 16 with one walk. Osterman also improved to 6-0 all-time against Texas A&M. Aggie hurler Amanda Scarborough (20-1) suffered her first loss of the season after surrendering three runs (one earned) on eight hits while striking out five and walking one.
The trio of Gwyn, Willis and Cook each also registered one hit and combined for two runs scored.
Scarborough and Rocky Spencer collected the lone Aggie hits off Osterman. After Scarborough's bloop hit to shallow left field to open the second inning, Osterman sat down 11-straight batters before Spencer connected for a single to left field.
The Longhorns return to action when they host No. 7 Oklahoma at McCombs Field in a two-game, Big 12 set this weekend. The two teams will square off on Saturday at noon before meeting again on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both games will be aired live on CSTV.
