SAN ANTONIO – Strong pitching was the theme Sunday as the Wildcats opened 2011 with a split picking up a win over St. Edward's and falling to Texas A&M-International in the night cap at the St. Mary's Division II Softball Classic.
Senior
Brittany Rexroat had a strong outing in the season opener for the Wildcats while Valentina Nabayna and
Megan Brigance went deep in a 7-4 win over St. Edward's. Rexroat scattered five hits over five strong innings to pick up a season opening win at the St. Mary's Softball Classic.
A walk to Meagen Bailey gave the Hilltoppers base runners in the first and a single through the right side by Courtney Lavender scored Bailey putting St. Edward's on top early, 1-0.
ACU would threaten in the top of the third after
Ashley Calles singled down the right field line for the Wildcats second base runner of the day.
Tiana Tuinei would smash a 3-2 fastball to left scoring Calles and even the score at 1-1.
St. Edward's would pull back ahead when the Wildcats only error of the day allowed a Hilltopper baserunner. Lavender would pick up her second of four RBIs on the day with a sacrifice fly scoring Bailey again, however Rexroat would settle down and keep the Hilltoppers at bay.
A pair of homeruns in the fourth would give ACU the lead for good. Nabayna blasted a lead-off homerun to left followed by Brigance who blasted a 1-2 pitch just inside the left field foul pole putting ACU on top 4-2.
Sarah Martinez would pick up her second hit as she double to the gap in left and would score as
Melissa Mendoza singled on the first. Mendoza would later score her first of two runs on a Hilltopper error.
ACU added two more insurance runs in the seventh as Mendoza doubled to left for her second hit and scored on a
Candice Miller single. Nabayna would cross the plate giving the Wildcats a 7-2 lead after reaching via base on balls and scoring on the Hilltoppers third error of the morning.
St. Edward's would add a pair of runs, as
Shelby Hall finished the final two innings recording the save. Hall allowed two hits in two innings as both Hall and Rexroat each struck out one a piece.
Clarissa Salinas stymied the ACU bats as she scatterd five hits allowing three runs as the Wildcats fell to Texas A&M-International 8-3 in the second game at the St. Mary's Softball Classic.
The Dustdevils jumped on Wildcat starter
Shelby Hall for three runs on three hits in the first inning. Valentina Nabayna would drive in
Sarah Martinez who singled to lead off pulling ACU within two runs. Nabayna picked up all three RBIs for the Wildcats.
ACU would pull within one run in the fourth inning when Nabayna would blast her second homer of the day scoring
Melissa Mendoza who led off the inning with a single. However, that would be all the offense the Wildcats would produce as Salinas allowed only one hit over the final three innings.
TAMIU would plate three in the sixth inning and add a final insurance run in the seventh pushing the score to 8-3.
Peyton Mosely pitched the final five innings in relief for ACU allowing four runs on six hits.
Mendoza had her second multi-hit game of the day while Nabayna also had two hits in the night cap after adding her second homerun of the day. Martinez picked up the Wildcats only other hit.
ACU finishes at the St. Mary's Classic on Monday open with Angelo State before finishing with host St. Mary's. First pitch for the second day starts at noon with the start of game two scheduled for 2:15 p.m. on the St. Mary's campus.
