Season's End: Aggies Strike First, Fall First to Longhorns in NCAA Super Regionals

Game 3 of the Texas A&M Aggies road series against the Texas Longhorns proved to be competitive, but ultimately, it was coach Trisha Ford's squad who fell short just one win away from the Women's College World Series.

May 26, 2024; Austin, Texas; USA: The Texas A&M Aggies' softball team walks back to their dugout prior to facing the Texas Longhorns in Game 3 of the NCAA Tournament Super Regionals. / Matt Guzman - AllAggies on SI

AUSTIN, Tx. — As loud as the traveling band of Texas A&M Aggies fans was singing the Aggie War Hymm in a sea of Burnt Orange 10 minutes before first pitch, the home crowd at Red & Charline McCombs Field more than doubled its sound with ease.

Passionate Texas Longhorns fans made sure that their home team knew they were there, which, again, wasn't a hard task. It made for a hostile environment for coach Trisha Ford and her squad as they took to a foreign diamond for the third straight game in a best-of-three series, and ensured a competitive game.

In fact, competitive might have been an understatement.

A back-and-forth ensued for both the Aggies and Longhorns as their bitter rivalry's newest installment was written, but at the end of seven innings, it was the Longhorns who came out on top and earned a spot in the Women's College World Series.

Texas A&M's fast start showed promise for it, as it knew it needed to strike fast to have a chance at winning, but a string of scoreless innings — and one where the bases were left loaded — doomed the Aggies' chances.

On the other hand, an electric sixth inning from the Longhorns was enough to give them an insurmountable lead and a WCWS berth as they secured a 6-5 home series victory.

From the jump, the Aggies wasted no time getting themselves on the scoreboard. Eight pitches into Texas starting pitcher Mac Morgan's mound time, the Aggies notched a run after Trinity Cannon doubled to bring home Koko Wooley. A one-run lead was the result, and that held all the way through the top of the third inning.

It was clear that Texas A&M was on its game on defense. Through the Longhorns' first two at-bats, they only notched one run — that was until a wild pitch allowed Bella Dayton to scratch the scoreboard for Texas' first run of the night.

Ashton Maloney gave the Longhorns the lead after a double from Viviana Martinez brought her home, and from that point on, it was their game to lose.

The Aggies continued to find little success on offense after their first inning, notching only two hits and failing to bring home either runner. Meanwhile, Shaylee Ackerman's run as Texas A&M's starter was dwindling.

The Longhorns added another run — courtesy of Mia Scott's 10th home run of the season — to make it a two-run game and force the Aggies' hand.

Ackerman was pulled in favor of Emily Leavitt, who hit her first batter and walked her second, loading the bases, before getting the Aggies out of the inning as a ground ball found its way to first base before Katie Stewart could reach the bag.

Due up were the Aggies, who had just two more innings to score at least two runs and keep their season alive, and Cannon delivered a strong start.

A ball hit just a few feet below the home-run cutoff gave the senior one base, and Julia Cottrill followed up with a ground ball that got away from the Longhorns' first-baseman. Jazmine Hill stepped up to the plate with runners on the corners, and suddenly, the Aggies had the biggest opportunity they'd had all season.

Hill brought in Cannon to make the lead just one, barely reaching first base in the process, but Cottrill was ruled out to leave just one runner on first for Rylen Wiggins.

Chip away ⛏️

📺 ESPN2 @Jazmine_h77 | #GigEm pic.twitter.com/hT3HHsPwBg

— Texas A&M Softball (@AggieSoftball) May 27, 2024

Wiggins hit a ball directly to center field, but a miscommunication from the Longhorns' outfielders led to a dropped ball and a free base for both her and Hill. Mya Perez was hit by a pitch to load the bases for the Aggies — still with one out.

But Texas responded.

Two straight strikeouts electrified the entire crowd and gave the Longhorns all of the momentum heading into the bottom of the sixth inning as they clung to a one-run lead. Texas A&M sent out Emily Kennedy to pitch in hopes of stopping any attempts by the Longhorns to add insurance, and it almost worked.

A ground ball hit in the first-and-second base gap led to a quick flip to second base and a throw to third in a double-play try. The ball bounced out of the Aggies' glove at third, however, and allowed Leighann Goode to score with just one out remaining.

Scott followed it with a center-field drop to bring in another run, and suddenly, Texas A&M was in a hole down by three runs. Then, a triple from Martinez made it four.

But the Aggies weren't done, yet.

Texas A&M managed to land two runners on base after Wooley singled and Cannon was walked before Cottrill stepped up to the plate. Needing to chip away at the lead, she launched a ball to deep left field and scored three runs on her ninth home run of the season. A fly-out later, and the Aggies had just one out remaining with Wiggins back up to bat, but she was walked.

Wiggins advancing to first base put Perez up to bat, but she was walked, too. That left Amari Harper with the season in her hands for the Aggies, but unfortunately for them, she struck out to record the third out of the inning, and Texas secured a 6-5 victory at home to keep its season going.

With the loss, the Texas A&M Aggies conceded the series against the Texas Longhorns 2-1 and now head back to College Station with hopes of making a run next year. Meanwhile, the Longhorns move on to Oklahoma City with a chance at another championship.

The Women's College World Series is set to begin Thursday, May 30th.