ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats scored three runs in the first inning and sophomore pitcher
Shelby Hall made them stand up Friday night as she and the Wildcats knocked off No. 10 West Texas A&M, 3-1, at Wells Field in Lone Star Conference South Division softball action.
The second game of the doubleheader was stopped by lightning four batters into the game and will be picked up at that spot at 1 p.m. Saturday. The third and final game of the series will follow the completion of the 1 p.m. game.
Friday night's win pushes the Wildcats to 18-13 overall and 4-0 in the LSC South, while the Lady Buffs fall to 21-5 and 1-3.
With one out in the first,
Tiana Tuinei,
Sarah Martinez and Valentina Nabayan all walked before Tuinei was out at home on a fielder's choice off the bat of
Megan Brigance. When
Candice Miller then hit a ground ball to shortstop Alyssa Lemos, it appeared that the Lady Buffs would escape the inning unscathed.
But Lemos was indecisive on where to throw the ball, allowing Martinez to score. When Lemos finally did decide to throw to first, she overthrew the first baseman, allowing Nabayan to score to make it 2-0. The Wildcats' third run of the inning came on a double steal as Brigance scored to make it 3-0.
That was all that Hall would need as she scattered eight hits and four walks over seven innings of work. She picked up the win to improve to 6-7 on the season.
She got plenty of help from a solid defense behind her. In the third, the Lady Buffs put runners on base with back-to-back one-out singles before Meghan Brown flew out to right fielder
Brianna Fowlkes. The junior from Abilene fired to third base to keep the runners in check, but Nabayan caught Kim LeComte napping over at first and fired across the diamond and LeComte was eventually tagged out for the final out of the inning.
In the fifth, the Lady Buffs got a leadoff home run from Megan Slattery and then put two runners on base with two outs before Kaitlyn Witte flew out to left to end the inning. In the sixth, with two on and two outs, Nabayan made a spectacular stop of a Kristina Myles smash and touched the bag at third to end the inning, and Miller made a similar stop at first in the seventh for the final out of the game.
