Game #48: No. 9 Arkansas 7, No. 2 Texas A&M 4
Records: Texas A&M (40-8, 13-6), Arkansas (36-9, 12-8)
WP: Payton Burnham (11-2)
LP: Sydney Lessentine (4-2)
Save: Robyn Herron (2)
Box Score
A powerful No. 9 Arkansas team came into Saturday on a mission.
No. 2 Texas A&M gave up 11 hits, including two Bri Ellis long balls, with two errors as the Razorbacks defeated the Aggies, 7-4, at Davis Diamond.
Mac Barbara came out strong after a quiet night by hammering a two-run homer in the first as the blast traveled 241 feet with an exit velocity of 73.1 mph. Only two more A&M runs crossed the plate, but they didn’t come until the seventh, when the Aggies trailed by five runs.
The further offensive threat brought the go-ahead run to the box with the bases loaded, but Robyn Herron shut down A&M to earn the save.
“I just saw the ball up, and I just drove it,” Barbara said of her home run. “There’s highs and there’s lows, and it’s just how you treat the game of softball.”
Postgame, A&M head coach Trisha Ford spoke about how Barbara continues to be a machine at the plate.
“I think Mac is in a good place,” Ford said. “I think she feels very confident. Obviously, after that, they didn’t pitch to her much. Mac has an ability to change a game as long as she did what she did today.”
Sydney Lessentine started in the circle for the Aggies and faced three batters before Ford went to the bullpen for Emily Leavitt, who saw action for 2.2 innings, giving up two earned runs off three hits.
Lessentine returned to the circle in a surprising move that left many fans in the crowd with their eyebrows raised as to why Ford chose to send her back in after only seeing three Razorback batters.
“It was part of our game plan going into today, so she was going to get to a certain batter and then Leavitt was going to come in one time through and then, depending on where we were, put Lessentine back in or (Kate) Munnerlyn in,” Ford explained.
Leavitt allowed the first Arkansas run of the game off an Ellis solo shot off the left field light pole. Back-to-back singles by Ella McDowell and Kailey Wyckoff were enough for Ford’s eyes to make a change.
An RBI single by Courtney Day tied the game at 2-2 before the depth of the Arkansas lineup gave the Hogs the lead in the fifth inning, which they did not relinquish.
Additionally, two errors made by KK Dement and Amari Harper broke the game open.
Dement allowed a routine ground ball to get through her. Then, a Wyckoff fly ball to deep right field was misread by Harper along the foul line and gifted the Razorbacks two more unearned runs. Ellis continued her monstrous day, adding two more RBIs.
Heading into the home half of the seventh, Mya Perez and Allie Enright drew free passes that set up Dement for an RBI walk. DeeDee Baldwin made her way to the plate with two outs and extended the game with another run-scoring walk, but the bases were left loaded with a chance to walk it off.
On the day, A&M left 11 runners on base and finished with only five hits.
“I thought we had opportunities,” Ford said. “We just didn’t get that big hit.”
The series concludes on Sunday at 12 p.m. CT.
