Aggies beat Kansas in five innings
LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Texas A&M freshman Amber Garza had a grand slam and senior Kelsey Spittler added three hits for a second straight day as the 21st-ranked Aggie softball team grabbed a 13-0 victory over the Kansas Jayhawks on Sunday in Big 12 play.
A&M (36-13, 8-5) scored three runs in the second and six more in the fourth en route to a five-inning victory. It was a far cry from Saturday, when A&M had to hold on for a 3-2 victory over the Jayhawks (31-22, 2-16), who left two runners stranded in the final inning.
"That makes yesterday just that much more of a critical game," A&M head coach Jo Evans said. "We did a good job shutting that game down yesterday and that took a little wind out of Kansas' sail. Today we came out and were really aggressive. I thought we did a good job with our discipline at the plate; good two-strike hitting, scoring with two outs. We really got comfortable at the plate. It was great to see us swinging like that."
A&M sophomore right-hander Melissa Dumezich, 22-8, allowed only three hits, walking two and striking out five. She got the offense rolling with a two-out, three-run homer in the second. Dumezich was 0 for 3 on Saturday.
"It was really great in that inning when Dumezich got up there," Evans said. "Let's face it, [KU pitcher Allie] Clark had her number yesterday. For her to get up there and hit the long ball and get us going and get Mel out of a little slump was a great way to start the offensive attack."
Freshmen starred for A&M in the next inning. Cassie Tysarczyk added a solo homer and freshman Nicole Morgan had a bases loaded walk before Garza's grand slam. In the fourth, Spittler had a three-run homer.
A&M, tied with Oklahoma State (37-12, 8-5) for third place in the Big 12, will play third-ranked Texas (44-5, 13-1) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Aggie Softball Complex in game that will be televised by FSN Southwest.
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Texas 5, Oklahoma 3: AUSTIN -- Taylor Hoagland and Courtney Craig homered for the Longhorns (44-5, 13-1) to split the weekend series with the Sooners (35-16, 8-8). UT's Blaire Luna, 26-3, won despite walking six and striking out only two.
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Texas Tech 5, Nebraska 0: LINCOLN, Neb. -- The 17th-ranked Red Raiders (40-12, 5-11) scored all their runs in the seventh, snapping a five-game losing streak. Back-to-back bunt singles by Ashley Hamada and Raven Richardson loaded the bases to put the Cornhuskers (35-9, 5-7) in a hole they wouldn't recover from.
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Baylor 10, Iowa State 1: AMES, Iowa -- The Lady Bears (37-12, 8-7) snapped a three-game conference losing streak with eight runs in the last two innings.
Iowa State (21-22, 3-9) had four errors and only four hits.