The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas A&M
Wild finish propels No. 5 Softball past No. 20 Texas A&M, 4-3
04.06.2011 | Softball
April 6, 2011
AUSTIN, Texas - The fifth-ranked Texas Softball team answered every shot No. 20 Texas A&M landed on Wednesday night and one-upped the Aggies in the bottom of the seventh when freshman pinch runner Mandy Ogle raced home on a wild pitch to lift UT to a 4-3 victory. The win extended Texas' winning streak to 16 games and improved the Longhorns to 32-3 on the year and 5-0 in Big 12 play, while the Aggies dropped to 30-9 overall and 3-2 in league action.
Texas' win improved its lead to 7.5-to-5.0 in the 2010-11 State Farm Lone Star Showdown standings. This marks the seventh year of the Showdown, the all-sports athletic competition between Texas and Texas A&M. In order to win the Showdown, a school must acquire 10.0 points during the year.
The Longhorns trailed 3-2 entering the bottom of the seventh before junior first baseman Lexy Bennett roped a leadoff home run to left field to tie the game at three. Senior catcher Amy Hooks followed with a walk and was replaced at first by Ogle. Sophomore leftfielder Torie Schmidt came to the plate with one out in the frame and hit a soft grounder to first base that was booted into the A&M dugout and allowed both runners to move into scoring position.
Freshman designated player Karina Scott came to the plate looking to bring home the winning run, but a wild pitch by Melissa Dumezich squirted to the backstop and allowed Ogle to come home and score the winning run.
Sophomore righthander Blaire Luna tossed the first 6.1 innings for the Horns, allowing three runs on four hits, walking six and fanning 11 before being lifted in the seventh. Freshman reliever Rachel Fox (14-1) came on to record the final two outs and notched the victory after allowing one hit, walking one and striking out one. Dumezich (16-6) took the loss, logging a complete game for the Aggies, surrendering four runs on seven hits, walking five and striking out seven.
Bennett headlined the Longhorns' offense in the game, coming up a single shy of the cycle. She doubled in the first, reached on an error in the third, tripled in the fifth and homered in the seventh. Freshman shortstop Taylor Thom helped UT's cause with two hits and an RBI in the victory.
Texas A&M got on the board first, using a leadoff homer to right centerfield by Amber Garza to grab a quick 1-0 lead in the second. The Horns answered in the home half of the inning, using a leadoff single by Schmidt and an RBI single by Thom to tie the game at one.
The Aggies reclaimed the edge in the third, loading the bases with two hits and a walk before Garza drew a bases-loaded walk to put A&M ahead by one.
Texas' offense stayed quiet until the fifth when Bennett connected for a one-out triple on a ball misplayed by the Aggies and came home to tie the game on junior third baseman Nadia Taylor's two-out triple into the right field corner.
Texas A&M broke the 2-2 tie in the top of the seventh, taking advantage of back-to-back one-out walks to chase Luna from the game. Fox walked her first batter to load the bases before Dumezich connected on an RBI single to reclaim the lead for the Aggies.
Texas returns to action on Saturday, April 9 when it kicks off its two-game series at No. 11 Nebraska. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. Central.
POST-GAME NOTES
- Texas' win improved its lead to 7.5-to-5.0 in the 2010-11 State Farm Lone Star Showdown standings
- Texas' win improved its all-time record against Texas A&M to 18-18 and 9-7 in Austin.
- Lexy Bennett's homer in the seventh marked her fourth straight game with a home run. The roundtripper was her ninth of the season and tied her with Taylor Hoagland for the team lead. It was also her 23rd career long-ball, a mark which ranks fifth-best all-time at UT.
- Bennett's 3-for-4 effort improved her all-time totals against Texas A&M to 11-for-15.
- The win improved Texas' winning streak to 16 games and improved its Big 12-leading record to 5-0.
POST-GAME QUOTES
Head coach Connie Clark
On the win tonight: It was a fun night. It is good to be challenged. Any time you have the Aggies and the Horns match up, you can throw all the stats out the window pretty much. It was a tight game, and we haven't had any tight games lately, so it was a good challenge for us.
On Lexy Bennett's home run: She is about as hot as anybody in the country, and she has been for the last three weeks. Her presence just going up there, it was almost without a doubt that she was going to hit something hard, and she got the pitch she was looking for, and she has ice water in her veins right now. She is amazing.
On this win: We take it one game at a time, so anytime we can scratch out a win, it is going to be important in this conference. We were at home, and the crowd was great, and I think they were really helpful for us. But it was a good win, it was a tight win. It was a good growth piece for us to have bring Rachel Fox out of the bullpen. Blaire Luna and Fox mostly throw complete games, but we wanted to give them a different look, and she did a great job. And that is something we may need down the stretch, whether it is Luna coming out of the pen or Fox. So, I think from that standpoint it was a good growth piece with our battery. We continue on offense to have different people hot at different times, and we were able to pick up some of the ones that were struggling tonight.
Junior third baseman Nadia Taylor
On playing Texas A&M: Playing the Aggies is always fun. It is always intense, it always comes down to the bottom of the seventh. We came up big, Lexy [Bennett] came up clutch, it was awesome.
On how hard fought the game was: We are always going to bring our best stuff, and we know they are always going to bring their best stuff, so each inning is a grind. They threw a blow, and we threw another one, and we were fortunate to pull it out in the seventh inning.
On the winning streak: We're taking each game one pitch at a time. We have Nebraska this weekend, and we're going to make sure we take each game one at a time.
Junior first baseman Lexy Bennett
On how big this win is: It's great. Playing Texas A&M is always fun. It is always a great game with them, and this game was really important for us. It was a great win for us all-around. I think they did a great job, and we did great too.
On the game's drama: It was a very stressful game. I think these are the fun games, and this is the reason you play softball, this is what you live for. This adds a lot of excitement to it.
On beating Texas A&M: It's fun. Growing up in Texas it is a great rivalry. I just think playing any team in the Big 12, or any team at all, is a big game, no matter who you are playing.
