Riley Sartain '19

For Riley Sartain, there really wasn't a question where she would go to school. Her father, Chris, was a member of the Corps of Cadets. Her mother, Lauren, also an Aggie. Her grandmother lives in College Station and Sartain was a regular at A&M's summer softball camps.

Once on the team, Sartain started 232 of a possible 236 games in her A&M career. She was named an All-American in 2017, competed in four NCAA Tournaments, advanced to two Super Regionals and reached the game's pinnacle, the Women's College World Series, as a sophomore. And finally, she became one of six Aggies to ever be drafted into the National Pro Fastpitch league.

"Not in our wildest dreams did we ever think she'd walk away with all those accomplishments and be on the walls of the stadium," Chris said. "If you'd have told me that while she was at camp as an 8, 9 or 10 year old...I'd have called you crazy."

Fast forward to this spring and Senior Day, and Lauren says watching her youngest daughter that weekend was amazing.

"We didn't realize how many people's lives she'd touched," Lauren said. "There were ushers coming up to us, thanking us, hugging us, emotional about it, saying they were going to miss her."

For head coach Jo Evans, that Senior Day was a little harder than usual. And that's because of the person Sartain is.

"I loved being around Riley," Evans said. "I love her family. They just know what it means to be an Aggie. Her parents have raised her to be a leader, to stand on principle and be a person of character. She didn't take her A&M experience for granted because her family didn't take it for granted. She showed tremendous resilience and loyalty to our program when it wasn't easy.

Sartain became the first Aggie to play her final season as a senior at Davis Diamond. It's an honor she calls a dream come true.

For Sartain and the Aggie softball team, the best part about Davis Diamond is that the stadium's namesakes –Becky '76 and Monty '77 Davis –are right therewith them, feet from the dugout, riding the highs and lows of the season as if they're on the roster.

"I'm super happy that not only are their names on there, but they're in our hearts and in our lives," she said. "They're much more than a name on a stadium. They are part of our family."

"I'm extremely glad the 12th Man Foundation connects us with other Aggies who want us to succeed and want us to do better. Being able to communicate with Linda and J.D. Woodward, exchanging letters with them, seeing them at functions and being able to express gratitude to them and how special they made me feel is really cool."