ABILENE – Juniors
Madison Buckley and
Lyndi Smith continued to swing a hot bat Saturday as the duo went a combined 10-for-13 with six runs and seven RBI, giving Abilene Christian a doubleheader and series sweep of Cameron at Poly Wells Field.
ACU held on to win the first game, 5-4, but got a big three-run walk-off home run from Smith in game two to win 10-2 in five innings. The victories lifted the Wildcats' season and conference records to 24-20 and 8-10, while the Aggies fell to 13-25 and 6-12.
Smith's game-clincher – a laser shot that carried over the wall in right-center field – was her ninth home run of the season and gave her a second five-RBI game in as many weeks, which matches her career best. In Smith's previous at-bat, she ripped a bases-loaded single to the left-center gap that plated both
Keanna Winkfield and
Sara Vaughn as part of a four-run fourth inning that broke the game wide open for the Wildcats.
Buckley, meanwhile, finished the weekend 8-for-10 and today slapped six hits, including a RBI double in the fourth inning of game one.
ACU and Cameron went into that frame tied at 2-2, but received some breaks along the way from Aggie starter Samantha Betts (9-11), who hit
Ashley Nolan with a pitch to start the inning and later bounced a throw in the dirt trying to get Winkfield at first base.
Following the error on Winkfield's tapper back to the circle, which allowed Nolan to score from second, Betts walked Vaughn before giving up her only hit of the inning – Buckley's two-bagger down the left-field line. Vaughn moved to third on the hit and scored on Smith's fly ball to center that made it a 5-2 game.
Cameron came back with two runs in the fifth on Tara Martin's two-out home run to right, but in the sixth, starter
Peyton Mosley (5-8) stranded a runner at second with one out, and then in the seventh, senior
Caitlyn Crain struck out two of the four batters she faced in earning her fourth save of the year.
ACU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning on
Courtney Flanary's sixth home run of the year and a RBI infield single by Winkfield. The Aggies, however, quickly tied the score in the third on Leslie Martini's two-out, two-run double to left field.
Game two appeared to be following a similar pattern early on as Cameron answered ACU's two unearned runs in the first with two of their own in the third, but in the bottom half of that inning,
Heather Peacock broke the 2-2 tie with a sacrifice fly to left that scored Buckley.
Crain (11-9), who finished the weekend 2-0 with a save and eight strikeouts, scattered two hits during her 5.0 inning start and stranded three runners on base. Mosley struck out two through 6.0 innings in game one, but also stranded seven Aggie runners – four in scoring position.
As a team, ACU hit .379 in its three games the Aggies and outscored them, 25-8. Winkfield also had a solid weekend at the plate, going 3-for-8 with four runs, two RBI and a pair of stolen bases.
The Wildcats return to action next week with games at Angelo State and Eastern New Mexico.
