ABILENE, Texas - The No. 21 Abilene Christian Wildcats and Incarnate Word Cardinals split their first Lone Star Conference doubleheader of the season Friday night at Poly Wells Field. UIW won the first game, 7-4, while ACU took the second, 10-2, in six innings.
The two rivals will complete their three-game series Saturday at 1 p.m. ACU goes into the rubber match at 14-9 and the Cardinals at 10-7.
Junior
Lyndi Smith belted two monster home runs as part of a tremendous 5-for-7 performance at the plate. She hit her first of the twin bill and third of the season off Cardinal starter Brianna Sanchez (6-1) in game one, and then in game two, she crushed a solo shot over the scoreboard in left field vs. Whitney Waltrip (3-5).
Smith's homer in game one trimmed UIW's lead to 7-4, but the Wildcats could get no closer as Sanchez flourished down the stretch in finishing just shy of 150 pitches. The Cardinals' ace put two more runners aboard following Smith's round-tripper, but came back to retire the last seven hitters she faced, including two by strikeout to finish with 10.
Caitlyn Crain (6-4), meanwhile, got off to a shaky start from which she and her teammates couldn't quite recover. The game's first batter - Alex Zepeda - reached on an error and would come around to score three batters later on Monica Acuna's RBI single, which was then followed by a fielder's choice and a pair of big two-out hits.
Alex Yarbrough's two-run double to the left field corner made it a 3-0 game, and the next batter, Shelby Waltrip, pushed the UIW lead to 5-0 with a two-run smash to left-center field.
ACU got one back in the fourth on Sanchez' (6-1) wild pitch with the bases loaded, but the Cardinals plated a couple of insurace runs from Kim Hanson (solo HR) and pinch hitter Victoria Silva (RBI single) in their very next at-bat.
Silva's base knock forced ACU to turn to its bullpen and senior
Shelby Hall (6-1), who responded with 2.2 shutout innings. Hall struck out six during her extended relief appearance before whiffing five more during her game two start.
Hall was tasked with only pitching 6.0 innings as her offense scored four times in the first and six more between the fourth and sixth frames to win via the eight-run rule. Smith ended the game with a shot up the middle that plated
Madison Buckley.
ACU's offense began to roll with two outs in the first vs. Waltrip as
Courtney Flanary's RBI single was followed by a walk, wild pitch and hit by pitch that moved two runners into scoring position. Freshman
Cara Hoover responded to the situation with the first of her two doubles that gave the Wildcats a 4-0 lead.
Hoover again reached base to start the fourth and scored on a two-out single by
Keanna Winkfield, who then came home on a
Sara Vaughn triple that made it a 6-1 game. Smith's fifth-inning bomb - which may have landed on Avenue D - pushed the lead to 7-1.
Anna Jones and Winkfield both doubled to start the sixth, as did Buckley one out later vs. relief pitcher Kandace Patek. Of ACU's 13 hits in game two, seven were for extra bases.
Hall tossed 113 pitches and escaped several big jams along the way, including one with two outs in the fourth. Hall had just finished walking the bases loaded to face Waltrip, the No. 3 batter, but she got the Cardinal pitcher to ground sharply to Flanary at third who tapped on the bag for the force out of Zepeda.
In the inning prior, UIW had already scored on run and had runners at the corners with one out, but Hall rallied to strike out Hanson before getting Yarbrough to end the threat with a ground ball to third.
UIW left 10 runners on base vs. Hall.
