Texas A&M softball coach Trisha Ford had visions of Mac Barbara delivering game-winning hits after landing the former two-time Mountain West Player of the Year who during her four-year career at San Diego State had tormented many, including Ford.
Ford’s vision of being on the right side of Barbara doing damage became reality Friday night. Barbara’s two-run home run capped a three-run sixth inning that propelled fifth-ranked A&M to a 5-4 comeback victory over Alabama in the opener of their Southeastern Conference series at Davis Diamond.
Texas A&M's Koko Wooley watches the pitch from first in the series opener against Alabama on Friday at Davis Diamond.
Alabama (21-11, 1-3) took a 4-1 lead in the fifth inning with a three-run inning of its own capped by a two-run homer by freshman Audrey Vandagriff. A&M got a run back in the bottom of the fifth with help from Alabama after a pinch-hit single by freshman Frankie Vrazel. She went to second on a wild pitch and third on a passed ball, scoring on senior Koko Wooley’s groundout.
A&M (25-4, 5-2) gave the partisan crowd of 2,277 plenty to cheer about in the sixth. Sophomore Mya Perez hit an opposite-field home run to left-center field to pull A&M within one. Junior Amari Harper followed with a single, chasing Alabama starting pitcher Jocelyn Briski. Relief pitcher Alea Johnson threw a strike to Barbara and on the next pitch the left-handed hitting Barbara lined a shot over the right-field fence.
“It kind of started when I was being aggressive early on in the game,” said Barbara, adding that she wanted to jump on pitches early. “So I was already prepared when she came in the game.”
It was only Barbara’s fourth homer of the season. She had hit three in the first six games and then went 21 games without a homer.
“She wants to do so well, she puts so much pressure on herself and I really think what has happened is she has put herself in a tough situation,” Ford said.
Barbara, despite hitting those early homers, was hitting less than .300 heading into March.
“I deal with a lot of mental health issues,” Barbara said. “So when I’m not feeling good mentally, you can kind of see it in my performance.”
She's starting to feel much better. She had four hits in last weekend’s sweep at Auburn and had an RBI single Friday in the fourth inning on the first pitch.
Barbara’s game-winning hit had to survive a wild seventh inning. Alabama was in position to tie or go ahead when the first two batters reached. Speedy freshman Vandagriff capped a perfect night with a single and junior Larissa Preuitt reached on a fielder’s choice with A&M not getting an out as Vandagriff was safe at second as Kennedy Powell’s throw to second on the bunt was a tad high, allowing Vandagriff to be safe.
A&M sophomore pitcher Sidne Peters retired the next three batters for the victory. Alabama senior Kali Heivilin lined out and junior Alexis Pupillo hit into a fielder’s choice after fouling off four two-strike pitches. Wooley, the shortstop, flagged down a grounder up the middle and got the force at third with help from junior third baseman Powell on a dandy play. It was Wooley’s second time to rob the Crimson Tide of a hit. Alabama junior Abby Duchsherer weakly popped up to end the game. Alabama’s three, four and five hitters were a combined 0 for 11 with three strikeouts.
Peters (7-0) got the victory with three stellar innings, allowing only two hits and no runs. The right-hander who transferred from Washington, struck out three with no walks. Junior right-hander Grace Sparks started and went five innings, allowing five hits with two strikeouts and two walks. She gave up four runs, three of them earned.
A&M had started All-America Emiley Kennedy in the first and third games at Auburn.
“We have a plan for this series and sometimes you look really smart and sometimes you don’t,” Ford said. “Grace didn’t get any innings last weekend and I wanted to see what that looked like. I felt [Kennedy] could come in. You know, we’re going to need all of them as the season goes on.”
Alabama scored first in the third inning as sophomore Salen Hawkins had a double, Vandagriff a bunt single and Heivilin a sacrifice fly. A&M tied it at one in the fourth by taking advantage of Perez’s two-out infield single. Harper followed with a single. A&M pinch ran for Perez with Kelsey Mathis. That paid dividends with Barbara lining the first pitch into center field for an RBI single. Senior Allie Enright walked to load the bases, but freshman KK Dement grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
The Crimson Tide scored three runs in the fifth, only the second time in the last five games they had scored more than two runs in an inning. Alabama junior Marlie Giles reached on a three-base error to start the inning as junior right fielder Harper couldn’t hold onto the ball. Hawkins hit a grounder inside the third-base bag into the corner for an RBI double. Freshman leadoff hitter Vandagriff shortened up as if to bunt on the first pitch, taking it for a ball. The left-handed hitter lifted the next pitch over the fence in right-center field for only her second homer of the season. The other came in a 6-3 loss to fourth-ranked UCLA on Feb. 15.
