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Updated 6:40 AM on Thursday, April 26, 2007

Scarborough shuts out Texas

A&M softball team scores early, holds on to put away Longhorns

By LARRY BOWEN
Eagle Staff Writer

The biggest crowd of the season showed up for the Lone Star Showdown on Wednesday night, and so did the Texas A&M softball team.

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Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Gabriel Chmielewski Texas A&M shortstop Macie Morrow tags out Texas' Kacie Gaskin during the Aggies' 3-0 victory Wednesday at the Aggie Softball Complex.

Thoroughly reversing the result of a disappointing loss last month in Austin, the Aggies thumped Texas 3-0 before a crowd of 1,809 at the Aggie Softball Field.

The fifth-ranked Aggies improved to 38-7 overall and 11-4 in the Big 12. A&M avenged a 5-0 loss and extended the slide that has dropped the 15th-ranked Longhorns to 29-16 and 4-9.

Amanda Scarborough pitched a three-hitter, and the Aggies provided great defense and timely hitting on a feel-good night. It was a welcome change from the March 28 game in Austin, when the Aggies had as many errors (two) as hits in an ugly loss.

"It was the most lackluster, unimpressive game we've had all year," A&M coach Jo Evans said of the previous loss at Texas. "It was the only time our kids haven't shown up in the entire season. I felt good coming into tonight, because I knew our kids would show up, and I knew the crowd would be behind us."

The Aggies gave the fourth-largest crowd ever at the A&M field something to yell about in the first inning, scoring a run on two hits and two walks against Megan Denny. Sharonda McDonald had a leadoff single, and Scarborough singled before Jami Lobpries drew a bases-loaded walk to give A&M the lead.

"I thought [McDonald] set the tone," Evans said. "Scoring in the first inning was really critical, to get that momentum early."

Scarborough (20-4) stoked the fire by controlling the UT hitters. Texas managed to put two runners on base at the same time only in the seventh inning, and one of those was the result of the game's only error.

"I thought she did a tremendous job," said Kacie Gaskin, who had two of the three Longhorn hits. "She was much sharper than she was at our place. She had more speed. She had more control."

Scarborough also had much more help from her defense. Center fielder McDonald made a great diving catch, while catcher Beverly Rowan threw out a runner trying to steal, and second baseman Joy Davis and shortstop Macie Morrow contributed several good plays.

"I thought we were outstanding defensively," Evans said.

Gaskin lined a one-out single to center in the second inning. Rowan dug out a low, inside pitch to throw out Gaskin attempting to steal second, rendering a subsequent single harmless.

In the seventh inning, an error and Gaskin's second single brought the potential tying run to the plate with no outs. But Scarborough struck out the next hitter and induced a game-ending double play to escape the jam.

FINAL: Texas A&M 3, Texas 0 RECORDS: A&M (38-7, 11-4 Big 12), Texas (29-16, 4-9) NEXT: Texas Tech at A&M, 1 p.m. Saturday

"We had some good looks," Texas coach Connie Clark said. "We put the ball in play. Every time we tried to ignite something, either Scarborough or their defense squelched it."

The Aggies made it 2-0 in the third when Megan Gibson lined a double off the fence in right and scored on a single by Scarborough.

Gibson collected her second double in the fifth and scored on a two-out single by freshman Alex Reynolds, who had struck out in her first two at-bats.

"Timely hitting is the difference," Evans said. "We had kids step up in a clutch situation and get an RBI."

Scarborough extended her scoreless-inning streak to 37 1/3 innings.

She hasn't allowed an earned run in her last 46 2/3 innings, dropping her earned run average to 0.93.

"I thought she did a terrific job against their big hitters," Evans said. "She shut them down and didn't let those kids get hot or get a big RBI."

Gaskin, a sophomore and former A&M Consolidated standout, was UT's most productive hitter one night after staying late after practice for extra work on her hitting.

"I stayed until I couldn't lift my arms any more, and it paid off," Gaskin said. "We didn't win, so it doesn't feel good. We've got to figure out a way to score some runs."

• Larry Bowen's e-mail address is larry.bowen@theeagle.com.