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Hinshaw's grand slam puts away No. 4 Arizona

Special to the Eagle

TUCSON, Ariz. - Jamie Hinshaw's grand slam in the top of the fifth inning lifted the second-ranked Texas A&M softball team to a 4-3 victory over No. 4 Arizona on Saturday night at Hillenbrand Stadium.

With the victory, the Aggies (13-1) evened the series with the Wildcats (12-3).

Hinshaw's four-run blast in the top of the fifth drove in Holly Ridley, Bailey Schroeder and Macie Morrow to give the Aggies a 4-0 lead.

"You can't mess around with that kid," A&M coach Jo Evans said of Hinshaw. "She just did a nice job to stay loose and held her ground. She does a nice job in clutch situations, and we can count on her to get the big RBI."

Arizona answered Hinshaw's blast with a run in the bottom of the fifth. The Wildcats then cut A&M's lead to 4-3 on Chelsie Mesa's first home run of the season, a two-run blast off A&M starter Megan Gibson in the bottom of the sixth.

But Gibson, who struck out nine and walked two, rebounded by retiring the final four Wildcat batters to seal the victory. Gibson (6-0) remained undefeated this season, allowing three earned runs on five hits over seven innings of work.

"Gibson was terrific on the mound," Evans said. "She did a great job of keeping their hitters off balance, mixing speeds and really hitting her spots. You could see that she felt good out there. She was really loose. She and [catcher Patti Wunderlich] worked really well together."

Arizona's Taryne Mowatt (2-2) suffered her second loss of the season - both coming off Aggie home runs. Mowatt worked all seven innings, allowing four unearned runs on three hits and striking out 12. She walked three.

Game 3 of the three-game series is set for 1 p.m. Sunday.