ABILENE - The Abilene Christian softball team will look to rebound from yesterday's losses at St. Mary's by getting back on the diamond Friday for the start of a three-game series vs. Texas A&M-Kingsville.
Friday's doubleheader begins at 5 p.m. and will be broadcast by
Grant Boone via the ACU Sports page at YoeTV.org. Saturday's series finale is slated for a 1 p.m. start.
The Wildcats enter the weekend having lost four of their last five games, which have dropped their overall and Lone Star Conference records to 18-8 and 4-4. ACU's mini slump started last weekend at Tarleton State, and continued into Wednesday's rematch against the Rattlers, losing by scores of 4-1 and 1-0.
When ACU and St. Mary's first locked horns last week at Poly Wells Field, it was the Wildcats who emerged victorious as a result of two walk-off wins courtesy of
Sara Vaughn. But ACU could not repeat its heroics in San Antonio as the offense stranded eight runners in game one, and then were four-hit in game two with a pair of runners thrown out at home plate.
Peyton Mosley (6-5) started game one, and while she never was victimized by one big inning, the Rattlers we're able to plate an unearned run against her in the second before tacking on single runs from the fourth to sixth innings.
ACU got one run back in the sixth when
Brianna Fowlkes drilled a RBI double to score Mosley from first base.
Shelby Hall (6-2) was a tough-luck loser in game two as she once again held the Rattlers to one run, but it came with one out in the seventh and gave St. Mary's a walk-off victory of its own.
Kingsville is 12-17 overall and tied for last place in the conference at 1-8 after going 1-2 last weekend against 19th-ranked West Texas A&M. The Javelinas won the opener 5-2 behind 13 hits, but fell in the next two games by scores of 8-2 and 4-3.
Kaylee Villanueva has hit safely in 14 of her last 16 games and leads the Javelinas with a .352 batting average.
Lindsey Brown is tops in the Kingsville circle with nine wins, a 2.83 ERA and 79 strikeouts.
Abilene Christian won 2 of 3 games from the Javelinas last year and own a 29-26 all-time series advantage.
