GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Texas A&M softball team (29-26) was unable to overcome early runs tacked on the board by No. 12 Florida (42-15) Wednesday night, dropping its second-round Southeastern Conference Tournament game to the Gators, 4-1.
Left-handed hurler Emiley Kennedy shut Florida down in 4.2 innings of relief work, fanning three while not allowing a run. Offensively, sophomore Trinity Cannon picked up where she left off last night with her 11th multi-hit game of the year.
TOP OFFENSIVE PLAYER
at No. 12 Florida – L, 1-4
- Trinity Cannon: 2-for-3, RBI
PITCHING BREAKDOWN
at No. 12 Florida – L, 1-4
- Grace Uribe: 1.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K
- Emiley Kennedy: 4.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
KEY INNINGS / NOTABLES
at No. 12 Florida – L, 1-4
- Florida pulled a double steal in the bottom of the first to take an early, before extending its advantage with a pair of RBI singles.
- The Gators used another RBI single in the second to jump out to a 4-0 cushion.
- Kennedy and the Aggies worked a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth to sit the Gators down in order for the first time.
- In the sixth, Rylen Wiggins drew her second lead-off walk of the game, before Cannon’s second hit of the night drove her home to help the Aggies get on the board.
- The Maroon & White threatened in the top of the seventh, but Florida got out of it with a pair of Aggie runners left stranded.
WHAT THEY SAID
Head coach Jo Evans
Opening statement…
“I thought our team did a really great job of competing tonight. You know, Florida came out on quick start and scored four runs early. You know, they were aggressive at the play. They really struck the ball well, in the first inning. Then I thought we did a great job to settle down. I mean, Emiley Kennedy was a big part of that coming out and just taking care of their hitters. I thought she was phenomenal tonight. Offensively, we took our walks, I think we got six walks or so on the night. Did a good job taking those opportunities and, and then also, I thought we barreled up a lot of balls. We struck the ball well, didn’t necessarily land for us, but thought we had a ton of quality at bats. When you looked at the first inning, we had five hitters that got a chance to get up in that inning and all five of those at bats were quality abs and that’s what we’re playing for every single inning to just stack up enough quality abs to where you can score some runs. So unfortunate that we couldn’t score those runs in the end. That’s the perfect scenario. We would take that every single day to have Haley Lee be the tying run at the plate in the seventh inning. So I thought our kids fought hard and you know it’s tough to lose out one, but I think our kids are showing that their character and talent and resiliency.”
UP NEXT
The 2022 NCAA Division I Softball Selection Show airs Sunday on ESPN2 at 6 p.m.