KINGSVILLE -- The ACU Wildcats picked up their first Lone Star Conference South Division victory of the season Friday as they split a doubleheader with Texas A&M-Kingsville at Hubert Field.
The Wildcats scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning of the first game to pull out a 4-2 win. But the Lady Javelinas put up two big innings in the nightcap to take a 9-3 win.
The split leaves the Wildcats at 15-21 overall and 1-4 in the LSC South, while the Lady Javelinas are now 17-16 and 5-3. The teams will wrap up the three-game series Saturday with a single game starting at noon.
In the first game of the series, the Wildcats broke a 2-2 tie with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh to pull out the victory.
Nancy Sawyers got the inning started with a single and then moved to second when
Caitlin Nabors reached on an error by Kingsville shortstop Ariel Lichtenberger.
Shawna Barrow then broke the tie when her single to centerfield drove in Sawyers to give the Wildcats a 3-2 lead.
With Nabors at third base, Barrow stole second, breaking Leisha Johnson's career stolen bases record with her 33rd of the season. Barrow is now both the single-season and career record-holder for stolen bases with 35.
With one out and the bases, Nabors scored when Lichtenberger dropped a popup off the bat of
Jenny Kulp, giving the Wildcats a 4-2 lead. ACU freshman pitcher
Shelby Hall worked around a one-out walk in the bottom of the seventh to pick up the complete-game win and improve to 6-12 on the season.
The Lady Javelinas got after the Wildcats right from the start of the second game, even though they didn't score in the first inning against starter
Brittany Rexroat. Rexroat allowed each of the first five Lady Javelinas of the first inning to reach base, but none of them scored.
That was the only inning Rexroat worked before she was replaced in the circle by Jacque Gregoire. Last year's ace was blistered for seven runs -- all earned -- on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings of work.
The Lady Javelinas scored four runs in the third, three more in the fourth and then scored two in the sixth off
Kim White. Gregoire was tagged with the loss as she fell to 1-3 on the season.
ACU's only runs of the game came in the fourth on an RBI single by Sawyers, in the fifth when Missy Mendoza's sacrifice fly drove in Barrow, and in the sixth on a solo home run by
Candice Miller.
