Aggie softball frustrates Nebraska for 5-1 win

Mel Dumezich and the Texas A&M softball team are heating up at the right time.

Dumezich pitched a three-hitter to help the Aggies to a 5-1 Big 12 victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Sunday at the Aggie Softball Complex before 934 fans to complete the sweep of the two-game series. The 22nd-ranked Aggies (33-11, 5-4) extended their home winning streak to 19 games with back-to-back victories over a ranked opponent for the first time this season.

"You're 5-4 in conference and you're thinking you shouldn't feel good about yourself," A&M head coach Jo Evans said. "But gee whiz, we're running up against great teams every time we play. Everybody always is ranked ahead of us, and we know we're going to have to play great to beat them.

"I just love that we can get on a winning track. I love coming back home and us taking care of business, just really playing the game the way we're supposed to play it. And we needed this to get us on a little roll."

Hard-luck A&M was 1-9 against ranked teams coming into the series, but Dumezich (19-7) gave the Aggies a lift and left Nebraska's hitters talking to themselves as they left town.

It was a lost weekend for 12th-ranked Nebraska (31-8, 3-5), which came in with the best start in school history, but left Aggieland the way it typically does -- frustrated. The Cornhuskers could have headed home in third place behind third-ranked Texas (37-4, 9-0) and Missouri (35-5, 9-1) with a sweep, but are in seventh place after dropping to 4-15 all time in College Station.

Dumezich made sure Nebraska's offense had its worst back-to-back games of the season, lifting A&M into a fourth-place tie with Oklahoma State (34-10, 5-4).

The sophomore right-hander tossed a pair of complete games, allowing seven hits, all singles, and the run Nebraska scored was unearned.

"She gave their hitters fits," Evans said. "That's tough, [throwing] back-to-back games, when they've seen you and know what they want to key on. Yet, she was able to throw strikes on both sides of the plate."

Dumezich threw 115 pitches, 71 of them strikes. She had thrown 138 pitches Saturday, 85 of them strikes.

Dumezich, 19-7, allowed three hits Sunday, striking out 10. She got stronger as the game progressed, getting all her strikeouts from the second inning through the sixth.

"Coach asked me like in the fifth inning, 'Mel, you can go in [the clubhouse] and get some AC if you want,'" Dumezich said. "I said, 'No, coach, I'm fine.'"

A nasty changeup called for by freshman catcher Nicole Morgan left a trio of Cornhuskers frozen as they took third strikes.

"I thought Nic called a really good game," Dumezich said. "We mixed up our pitches a lot, and I mixed up speeds and I think that kept them off-balance. And I did throw a lot more changeups today than yesterday. It was really effective."

Dumezich was in trouble in only the third inning, most of it her own doing. She hit Gabby Banda, who is from Angleton and the lone Texan on Nebraska's roster. Madison Drake then reached when A&M first baseman Rhiannon Kliesing pulled her foot on the sacrifice bunt. Leadoff hitter Nikki Haget struck out, but Taylor Edwards singled sharply to left field to load the bases. Nebraska's Brooke Thomason struck out, but a riseball on a 1-2 pitch rode into Julie Brechtel and hit her, forcing in a run. Undaunted Dumezich induced Ashley Guile to fly out to end the inning.

Nebraska junior right-hander Ashley Hagemann wasn't as sharp as she had been in allowing only four hits in Saturday's 3-0 loss.

A&M answered Nebraska's run in the bottom of the third on Amber Garza's two-out single. That scored fellow freshman Cassie Tysarczyk. whose hustle resulted in a gift double when Nebraska third baseman Heidi Foland couldn't even get a glove on a towering popup that the wind pushed in front of the mound. The inning ended when Hagemann got a fly ball from Morgan to strand A&M's third runner in scoring position. The Aggies didn't let Hagememann wiggle out of trouble in the next inning.

Kelsey Spittler singled for her second straight hit, but Kelsea Orsak failed to get down a sacrifice bunt for the second straight at-bat, striking out for the second straight time.

No. 9 hitter Brittany Walker fouled off a bunt attempt for strike two, but atoned by lining a double off the wall in left-center field. Spittler slid home just ahead of the throw, then the speedy Walker had an even better slide into third to beat the tag.

"I was just trying to get a hit and get on base," said Walker of the bunt try. "I get mad at myself, especially when I get two strikes. I really get frustrated."

She was so mad, she didn't know what kind of pitch she hit, she just wasn't cheated in getting only her second extra base hit of the season.

"I thought it was going to be a popup, honestly," said Walker, who transferred in from Florida. "I didn't see where it went or anything."

A&M wasn't done.

Natalie Villarreal walked to end the day for Hagemann, 22-7, who lost a pair of one-run games to third-ranked Texas last weekend.

Tysarczyk singled home Walker and Kliesing's sacrifice fly against relief pitcher Tatum Edwards made it 4-1.

A&M tacked on a run in the sixth by cashing Villarreal's infield single. Dumezich, who lined a double to right field in the first, went back that way hard with a grounder for the run batted in, though she was retired.

A&M ended with 10 hits, the most the Huskers have allowed in a game this season.

"We just hit throughout the lineup," Evans said. "I was pleased with how patient we were at the plate. And 10 hits, that's a good day."

And other than Kliesing's quick foot, the Aggies played solid defense for the second straight game. The Aggies ended the game with a double play. Third baseman Garza caught a line drive and doubled up pinch-runner Saige Wright at first base. Garza was the middle person in a double play Saturday started by Dumezich.

"We put together a complete game," Evans said. "I just thought Mel got their hitters so frustrated. I just loved seeing us step up."

NOTES -- Dumezich was wild enough to be effective. Saturday, she had five walks and a hit batsman. On Sunday she hit three batters with three walks. "Yesterday, I was throwing a lot outside, so a lot of them started crowding the plate," Dumezich said. ... A&M's last loss at home was 14-1 last year to Missouri on April 24. ... A&M will be at the University of Houston on Wednesday in its final nonconference game of the season before playing at Oklahoma on Friday and Saturday.