Texas A&M salvages split to stay in hunt
Makinzy Herzog, Katie Dack and Koko Wooley had three hits apiece as Texas A&M rallied for a 10-7 victory over Minnesota Saturday night to stave off elimination in the NCAA regional at Norman, Okla.
With the victory, head coach Jo Evans notched career win No. 1,300, becoming just the ninth coach in Division I softball history to accomplish the feat.
“I’m overwhelmed a little bit. It’s a big number, and it only happens because of the players, who play hard and give everything they’ve got, staff members that I’ve worked with for so many years,” Evans said of the career milestone. “Just really grateful to be able to coach. I love coaching. Just to be out there playing the game. Tonight was special, the way we won it, made it even more special.”
Herzog went a seasonbest 3-for-3 with a walk and fell a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.
Earlier Saturday, Jayda Coleman led off the game with a home run and Hope Trautwein pitched a complete game as No. 1 Oklahoma edged the Aggies 3-2.
Texas A&M (31-27) will face Oklahoma again Sunday at 1 p.m. and would need to defeat the Sooners twice to advance to the Super Regionals.
TEXAS 8, WASHINGTON 2
Trailing 2-0, the Longhorns took advantage of a Huskies’ error with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth inning to score three runs en route to a victory on Saturday in a regional game at Seattle.
Texas (40-17-1) scored eight times over the final two innings to storm past host Washington (36-16) into Sunday’s championship round against the winner of Saturday night’s Washington-Weber State game.
MINNESOTA 13 PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 1
Emily Leavitt allowed one hit — a double by Panthers’ lead-off batter Audrey Garcia — and the Golden Gophers pounded out 13 hits to roll to a run-rule victory in an NCAA elimination game on Saturday at Norman, Okla.
Chloe Evans, Megan Dray and Emily Hanson drove in two runs apiece and each had a home run for Minnesota (27-24-1) which advanced to face Texas A&M.
Every Minnesota starter had at least one hit and ten Golden Gophers scored at least once.
Karina Cisneros singled in the fifth and final inning for the only other hit by the Panthers (2029), who were also charged with three errors.
NORTH TEXAS 3 NEBRASKA 0
Skylar Savage pitched a three-hit shutout as the Mean Green defeated the Cornhuskers to advance to Sunday’s regional final against host Oklahoma State at Stillwater, Okla.
Earlier Saturday, North Texas defeated Fordham 5-3 in an elimination game as Kalei Christensen hit a grand slam in the first inning and the Mean Green never lost the lead in eliminating the Rams.