Nebraska 6, Texas A&M 2

May 4, 2002

Nicole Trimboli's walk-off grand slam over the left field fence in the bottom of the seventh inning broke a 2-2 tie and gave the third-seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers a 6-2 triumph over fifth-seeded Texas A&M Saturday evening. The Nebraska victory eliminated the Aggies from the tournament.

The Huskers were one out away from posting a 2-0 shutout when starter Peaches James surrendered a two-run homer to A&M shortstop Crystal Martin, her second of the year. But Nebraska set the stage for Trimboli's heroics by loading the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh.

James earned the complete-game victory by allowing six hits and two walks while recording two strikeouts. The sophomore improved to 20-7 on the year. Lindsay Wilhelmson was credited with the loss after giving up five runs on six hits and a walk in 1.1 innings of relief. Wilhelmson, who fell to 12-7, replaced starter Jessica Slataper after the sophomore surrendered one run on three hits and three walks in 4.2 innings.

Texas A&M exits the tournament with a 38-16 record while the Huskers moved to 45-11. Nebraska will play in Sunday's 2:30 p.m. championship game against either No. 1 seed Texas or No. 2 seed Oklahoma.

Nebraska Head Coach Rhonda Revelle
On NU's mental toughness:
"The thing that impresses me the most about this game and this entire tournament is that mentally, there has not been a crack or even a bend. Our team has been very firm in our mindset."

On getting to the championship game:
"It feels good to be back in the championship game. I've never liked bussing home on Sunday morning. I'd rather get home very late in the morning on Monday. We're grateful to have the opportunity and we're going to try to be prepared as possible for whoever we play."

On A&M's seventh inning home run:
"That happens. Pitchers miss at times and I think that if you look at the game in its entirety, both pitchers threw very well."

Texas A&M Head Coach Jo Evans
On the game:
"I am very proud of our kids. I think this speaks for how competitive this team can be. They played well, just like they did last night. We just couldn't finish it today. As a coach you can look back at pivital points in the game and second guess yourself. In the conference you can have a pitcher run out of gas or have the opposing team get used to her. We couldn't find a way to win tonight, but I thought we played very well."

On the upcoming NCAAs:
"We take a lot from this tournament into a regional. Our goal at the beginning of the season was to get to the NCAA tournament and now our goal is to win our regional. This conference is so competitive that we feel we will do very well at a regional where we will face teams that are similar to the ones that we played here. We now feel like we can go into a regional and not be intimidated."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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