The Texas A&M softball team recovered from the emotional setback of losing All-American Amanda Scarborough with a 7-0 thumping of the Baylor Bears to open Big 12 play Wednesday night at the Aggie Softball Complex.

The team found out late Tuesday night that Scarborough, who injured her right foot Feb. 20, will need surgery and is through for the season.

"It's been a long day for us," A&M head coach Jo Evans said. "We've been waiting for her to get back in the lineup. There were a lot of tears shed over this. We watched the highlight film before tonight's game, and Scarborough was just in tears watching it, knowing she's not going to be out there. I gave the pregame [speech] with a big lump in my throat, because she's such a big part of this program."

The senior right-handed pitcher and first baseman was the Big 12 player of the year as a freshman then the league's co-pitcher of the year last season while earning first-team All-America honors.

She was 71-25 for her career in the circle with a 1.45 earned run average with 27 shutouts. She was a lifetime .355 hitter with 25 home runs and 125 RBIs.

The seventh-ranked Aggies (29-6) quickly gave Scarborough something to smile about with a five-run first inning. Starting Baylor pitcher Brittany Turner failed to record an out, walking the first three hitters as the partisan Aggie crowd of 1,552 celebrated the bases-loaded start to conference play with plenty of noise.

A&M's Jamie Hinshaw drove in the first run when she singled off the glove of shortstop Martiza Martinez on the first pitch from reliever Kristen Shortridge. Erin Glasco's two-run single to center field made it 3-0. The aggressive Hinshaw scored on a shallow sacrifice fly to center field, and Alex Reynolds capped the inning with an RBI single as the Aggies took a 5-0 lead.

Reynolds, who was hitless in her last seven at-bats, had three RBI singles as A&M snapped a season-high two-game losing streak, also ending a four-game losing streak against BU.

"I think the way our kids came out and played was something special," Evans said.

Senior right-hander Megan Gibson (17-0), who has become the team's ace in Scarborough's absence, allowed four singles in picking up her ninth shutout of the season. She struck out seven and walked two against the 15th-ranked Bears, who were hitting .343.

"She had some big outs when she needed them," Evans said. "Gibson is lights out right now. She's got such great presence on the mound. She's so stingy. She's not throwing the ball right over the plate to anybody."

Gibson got a big lift from her defense in the first inning when catcher Glasco picked off Shortridge at second base to end the inning.

A shaky defense allowed Baylor to sweep the regular-season series last year. All the runs were unearned in BU's 3-1, eight-inning victory at A&M, which had four passed balls and an error. Two runs were unearned in the Lady Bears' 5-4 victory at Baylor because of an error and a passed ball.

• Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.