May 20, 2007

CSTV HIGHLIGHTS

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - No. 7 Texas A&M jumped out to a pair of early leads and never looked back claiming 13-2 and 5-0 victories over the University of Houston softball team during the NCAA College Station Regional Sunday afternoon at the Aggie Softball Complex on the Texas A&M campus.

Houston's (44-18) season comes to a close, while Texas A&M (44-11) advances the NCAA Super Regionals against No. 19 Florida next weekend. The 44 wins by the Cougars this season is a program record.

"This was a great group to coach," head coach Kyla Holas said. "They did an excellent job of rising up to challenges. We had a lot of obstacles in our way especially towards the end of the season. The good news is that we know what we need to work on heading into next season."

"It has been a tremendous improvement from last season to this season," left fielder Laura Durham said. "We had a 40-win season (last season), but didn't make it the regional. Making it to this point was one of goals from day one when we started fall practice."

Angel Shamblin was tagged with both losses and finished the season with a 31-9 record. The Florida native closed her junior season with a pair of program single season records, recording 31 wins and 313 strikeouts.

"I felt that Angel needed to throw a few better pitches at some key moments," Holas said. "That was the difference for her today. We had multiple at-bats where she was able to do the job and then missed at some really critical times."

Texas A&M snatched the momentum early in the first inning of game one. Jamie Hinshaw knocked a RBI-double off the left field wall to score Sharonda McDonald, while Alex Reynolds cranked a grand slam to cap a five-run first inning.

Hinshaw added a two-run shot in the second inning to push the Aggie advantage to 7-0 and chase Shamblin from the game. The two-inning outing was Shamblin's shortest start of the season. She was tagged for a season-high seven runs on six hits.

Texas A&M also scored six runs off of UH reliever Barbie Love to make it 13-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning.

The Cougars strung together four hits in the bottom half of the fifth. Laura Durham and Laurie Wagner smacked a pair of RBI-singles for the final margin of 13-2. Durham along with Elaina Nordstrom and Christa Raley produced multi-hit efforts for the Cougars.

Amanda Scarborough threw four shutout innings and earned the win for the Aggies in the circle to bump her record to 24-7.

Houston looked to retake the momentum in the top of the first inning of the second game. Amanda Grote knocked a single to right centerfield and Christa Raley reached on a wild pitch after striking out. The frame ended after Grote overran third base and was tagged out to end the threat.

Hinshaw belted a RBI-single in the home half of the frame to put the Aggies on the scoreboard, while Amanda Scarborough added a sacrifice fly to give the Aggies a 2-0 advantage.

"They made adjustments and came out fired up," second baseman Haley Valis said. "We were pumped up too, but the difference was that we didn't make the adjustments quick enough. They jumped out on us in both games and kept us down."

Texas A&M tacked on three more runs in the third inning as Megan Gibson smacked a RBI-single to right field. One batter later, Scarborough popped a two-run homer for the final margin of 5-0.

The Cougars put runners on in five different frames, but Gibson collected a five-hit shutout in the circle to move her record to 17-4.

"The teams that win in the postseason are the teams who push their runners across," Holas said. "That's something that plagued us this season when we lost."

Houston returns a solid nucleus next season headlined by two-time Conference USA Pitcher of the Year Shamblin along with C-USA Player of the Year Jessica Valis. This was the final game for Durham along with Candi Kloecker and Carla Kennimer. Kennimer is the first Cougar in program history to play on two NCAA Regional teams.