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Updated May 13, 2007 8:34 AM

Texas Tech knocks A&M out of softball tournament

By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Sports Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Texas A&M's loss to Texas Tech two weeks ago proved costly. Saturday's loss to the Red Raiders hurt even worse.

Unheralded Texas Tech shocked the seventh-ranked Aggies with a three-run seventh for a 4-3 victory in the Big 12 Softball Championship semifinals at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.

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AP Photo Texas A&M pitcher Megan Gibson delivers against Texas Tech in their Big 12 softball tournament game on Saturday in Oklahoma City. Texas Tech won 4-3.

A&M (40-10) was two outs away from its first championship game appearance since 2000, but the Red Raiders loaded the bases with three straight one-out singles. Then an error, bases-loaded walk and wild pitch plated three runs.

"It's absolutely inexcusable what happened out there," A&M head coach Jo Evans said. "You go into the seventh inning with a two-run lead ... there's absolutely no excuse for our play out there. It's very frustrating."

Leah Legler's single loaded the bases, chasing starter Megan Gibson. Big 12 co-pitcher of the year Amanda Scarborough entered, coming off a three-hit 3-1 victory over Nebraska in the quarterfinals Friday night.

Pinch-hitter Alex Watkins grounded Scarborough's first pitch to third baseman Jamie Hinshaw. The ball took a wicked hop in front of Hinshaw and glanced off her glove toward shortstop Macie Morrow. Texas Tech scored a run on the play, cutting A&M's lead to 3-2.

A&M first baseman Gibson then fielded a Jennifer Corkin grounder and threw home for the second out of the seventh. Corkin had put Texas Tech on the scoreboard in the sixth with her third homer in three games.

With two outs and the bases still loaded, Scarborough walked Brandy Moulin to force in the tying run.

Then things got worse.

A&M catcher Beverly Rowan couldn't handle a strike on an 0-1 pitch to Amanda Myers, allowing pinch-runner Liz Eimen to score the go-ahead run on a passed ball. It was A&M's 25th passed ball of the season.

"Tech got a couple of bleeders in there for hits, and that's going to happen," Evans said. "But I just expect more from our pitching staff, to be able to close out a game. For us to walk in the tying run and allow the winning run to come in on a passed ball is inexcusable. We just have to be better than that."

Texas Tech didn't have any problem closing out A&M in the bottom of the seventh. Freshman right-hander Ashly Jacobs (17-14) retired A&M in order for her third victory within 24 hours. She allowed A&M one hit in 3 2/3 innings, pushing her weekend work to 19 2/3 innings with two earned runs and 321 pitches.

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AP Photo Texas Tech players celebrate after beating Texas A&M and earning a trip to the Big 12 championship game against Oklahoma in the Big 12 softball tournament.

"There is nothing better, and I can't describe it," Jacobs said. "It's too amazing."

It was the second time this season the Red Raiders dealt the Aggies a crushing defeat. Tech spoiled A&M's "Senior Day" two weeks ago, grabbing a 6-2 victory in the Aggies' final regular season game at home. That cost A&M any chance of winning the regular season Big 12 title.

A&M will find out Sunday how much the second loss to Tech cost in terms of NCAA Tournament seeding when the selection committee announces its 64-team field at 2 p.m. on ESPNews.

It was Tech's third straight come-from-behind victory. The Red Raiders rallied from a 4-0, fourth-inning deficit against Oklahoma State in one of the Championship's two play-in games for a 5-4 victory. Tech won with a two-run rally in the seventh that started with two outs and no one on base.

The eighth-seeded Red Raiders then outlasted league-champion Baylor 8-4 in 12 innings in Friday's last game that ended at 12:15 a.m.

Oklahoma ended Tech's run with a 6-3 victory in Saturday's Big 12 Championship title game.

The Red Raiders (24-27) needed to beat Oklahoma to earn the league's automatic NCAA Tournament berth, which was their only chance to make the field.

Tech's offense put pressure on A&M from the get-go but couldn't deliver a key hit. Tech was 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position until the seventh.

A&M missed a chance to score in the second. Scarborough doubled and took third on a wild pitch, but Tech starting pitcher Sarah Losleben retired the next three hitters.

A&M's speed paid off in the third when Lisa Gorzycki walked and Sharonda McDonald reached on an error before Hinshaw's double. Still, A&M's best hitters, Gibson and Scarborough, stranded Hinshaw.

A&M was inches away from a 5-1 lead in the fourth.

Davis' double scored Jami Lobpries, who had walked. That brought on Jacobs in the circle, and she struck out Morrow.

Gorzycki then ripped a shot to left, but the senior's bid for her first career homer ended with the catch of the tournament by left fielder Legler, who leaned over the temporary 3-foot cyclone fence, balanced her stomach on the top of it and reached over to make the grab. She managed to rebound her body back into the field of play, knocking a portion off the top of the fence.

She received a standing ovation from the crowd of 300 as she ran in, including from the Aggie fans.

Corkin's homer in the sixth started Tech's comeback. Moulin followed with a single, and Myers was hit by a pitch, but Gibson escaped the jam by inducing a popup by Robyn Wike, who had key hits in Tech's victories on Friday over Oklahoma State and Baylor.

Tech, however, had another rally left.

"We have to find a way to finish a game like that," Evans said. "There's really no way to describe the kind of disappointment and frustration when it's a game you should win."

Instead, Tech won its season-high sixth straight.

"It's pretty much adrenaline," Moulin said. "That is what you love to do, and you do it every day. "It's really exciting to know that we can pull this off and it is a big confidence builder and that's what we need right now. We are on roll."