KINGSVILLE, Texas - Senior
Caitlyn Crain struck out 11 batters, including the side in the seventh inning of game two, as Abilene Christian swept a doubleheader at Texas A&M-Kingsville Thursday night by scores of 6-0 and 6-3.
Crain (9-8) whiffed eight batters to earn the complete-game shutout victory in game one, and then returned to the circle in the seventh inning of game two after starter
Shelby Hall (8-2) allowed the first two batters to reach on base hits.
Crain promptly loaded the bases on a bunt single, but came back to strike out Jaeleen Castro, Adela Gomez and Carynn Gonzales in order to end the game as ACU (21-16, 5-6 LSC) recorded its first Lone Star Conference series win of the season.
The two defeats dropped Kingsville's season and conference records to 10-24 and 0-11.
Senior
Keanna Winkfield paced the ACU offense in game one as she went 4 for 4 and got the Wildcats on the board first with a two-out, two-run single in the second inning that scored
Demi McNulty and
Ashley Nolan.
Winkfield ripped another RBI single in her next at-bat in the fourth, and then
Sara Vaughn pushed the Wildcat lead to 5-0 with a two-run double. Vaughn scored two batters later on
Courtney Flanary's fly ball to left.
In game two, the Wildcats jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth on freshman
Cara Hoover's three-run home run to right center and then tacked on three insurance runs from the fifth to seventh.
Vaughn made it a 4-1 game in the fifth with a RBI single that scored Winkfield, and then in the sixth,
Lyndi Smith clubbed her sixth round-tripper over the left-field wall.
Winkfield scored her third run of the night in the seventh after coming home on an error by the Kingsville second baseman.
Hall allowed all three Kingsville runs off a pair of home runs by Gomez. The Kingsville first baseman hit a solo shot against Hall in the fourth and a two-run shot that cut ACU's lead to 5-3 in the sixth.
Gomez has gone deep six times this season.
The Wildcats and Javelinas conclude their series Friday at 1 p.m.
