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Updated April 29, 2007 8:36 AM

Aggies, Gibson shut out Texas Tech

By LARRY BOWEN
Eagle Sports Writer

Megan Gibson was on the receiving end of a ceremonial first pitch as Texas A&M's softball program honored its alumni Saturday afternoon, and it doesn't take much imagination to picture Gibson throwing one of those pitches some day.

Gibson pitched her seventh shutout of the season and struck out a career-high 12 to lead the Aggies to a 5-0 victory over Texas Tech before a crowd of 1,131 at the Aggie Softball Complex.

TEXAS A&M 5, TEXAS TECH 0 RECORDS: Texas A&M (39-7, 12-4 Big 12), Texas Tech (18-26, 1-12) WP: Megan Gibson (16-3) LP: Sarah Losleben (5-11) GAME 2: Noon Sunday

The junior also had two hits and drove in a run to highlight a good afternoon for the fifth-ranked Aggies.

A&M honored former Aggie softball players before the game, including members of the school's three national championship teams and the Aggies' only Big 12 champions, from 2005. While the victory over the struggling Red Raiders was expected, A&M received good news when Oklahoma and Baylor lost to boost the Aggies' hopes of winning another conference crown.

The Aggies (39-7, 12-4 Big 12) will play their final home game of the regular season at noon Sunday against Tech (18-26, 1-12).

Gibson caught the ceremonial pitch from Shawn Andaya-Pulliam, who led the Aggies to their last national championship, in 1987.

"I told her it was a good pitch," Gibson said. "She had some good spin on it."

Gibson had the Raiders spinning around and heading back to the first-base dugout with the top strikeout game of her career. The two biggest strikeouts came with Tech threatening to spoil the festivities in the third inning.

The first hitter struck out but reached on a wild pitch, and the Raiders loaded the bases with one out on a single and a walk.

No. 2 hitter Devin Zaragoza put up a battle but struck out on a 10-pitch at-bat. Then Gibson struck out Tech RBI leader Jennifer Corkin to end the inning.

"It was critical the way she was able to bear down to get us out of the third inning," A&M coach Jo Evans said. "That's a veteran pitcher who has a lot of confidence in herself. Maybe a younger pitcher would question herself in that situation and make a mistake."

Tech put two runners on base in the fourth, but Gibson extinguished that threat with a strikeout. That started a finishing kick in which Gibson retired the last 10 batters, striking out six.

"I was feeling more comfortable, knowing what they can do and the pitches they can't hit," Gibson said. "I really just tried not to make a mistake and let my defense work."

The Raiders scratched out three singles and didn't hit any other balls out of the infield.

"I don't think it was Gibson as much as it was us not sticking to our plan," Tech coach Teresa Wilson said. "We're not a very disciplined team yet."

The Aggies were not particularly effective with runners in scoring position, going 3 for 13 with runners at second or third, but the top of the A&M batting order had a productive day. Leadoff hitter Sharonda McDonald went 3 for 4 and ignited the Aggies' two-run first inning.

Amanda Scarborough drove a double to the fence to knock in McDonald and Gibson, who walked.

The Aggies settled for one run in the second after loading the bases with no outs.

In the seventh, McDonald singled, stole second and scored on a single by Gibson, whose 126th career run batted in moved her into a tie for fourth place on the A&M list with Jennifer McFalls.

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