The Texas A&M softball team, currently ranked No. 15 in the ESPN/USA Softball poll, will begin play at the San Marcos Showdown on Friday. The Aggies (16-7) are set to face Tarleton State at 11 a.m., followed by a matchup against Texas State at 4 p.m. Both games will take place at Bobcat Softball Stadium.
The contest against Texas State will be available for streaming on ESPN+, with former Texas A&M pitcher Brooke Vestal serving as analyst and Brant Freeman providing play-by-play commentary. Fans can also listen through the 12th Man Mobile app or tune in locally on Willy 1550 AM.
Nationally, Texas A&M holds several rankings: No. 14 in the NFCA poll, No. 18 in D1 Softball’s list, and No. 19 according to Softball America. Individually, Micaela Wark has recorded 10 home runs this season, placing her 11th nationally in that category. Sydney Lessentine ranks ninth in strikeout-to-walk ratio with an average of 8.80.
Senior Kennedy Powell has started every game at third base this season and has played in nearly every contest since joining the team in 2024—appearing in 140 games and starting all but one. She began this season scoring a run in each of the first ten games and has crossed home plate in all but five games so far. Alongside teammate Mya Perez, Powell has reached base successfully in every game this year; both players are maintaining a streak that dates back to last season and now stands at 26 consecutive games.
Powell also leads NCAA Division I with a streak of 35 successful stolen bases dating back to early February of last year after finishing perfect on stolen base attempts during the previous season. She is batting .459 with three doubles, fourteen RBI, twenty-six runs scored, and hits safely in twenty-two out of twenty-three games played this year.
Redshirt sophomore Ariel Kowalewski made her debut for Texas A&M after sitting out last season due to transfer rules within the SEC conference. In her first weekend as an Aggie, she reached base safely three times across five games and posted six hits overall for a .400 batting average during opening weekend play. At the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational, Kowalewski hit her first home run for Texas A&M against Duke and tallied seven RBI over five games.
Recently starting at catcher over four consecutive contests, Kowalewski is hitting .423 with eleven hits over the past ten games. Before transferring from Florida where she played third base as a freshman last year, she started fifty-six games while hitting .308 with eight home runs.
Texas A&M holds a historical advantage over both opponents scheduled for Friday’s doubleheader: they are undefeated (2-0) against Tarleton State—with both wins coming by run-rule—and have won seventy-three out of eighty-five meetings against Texas State overall.
“Powell along with Mya Perez are the lone Aggies to have reached base successfully in each game this year,” according to team officials.
