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PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas - Abilene Christian's softball team Tuesday split its rescheduled doubleheader against Prairie View A&M as the Wildcats followed a dominant 10-0 victory at Lady Panther Field with an unexpected late-inning 9-6 defeat.
The two sides had originally scheduled today's twin bill for mid-February in Abilene until cold temperatures forced its postponement. But with the Wildcats slated to travel south during their Spring Break week, the coaches opted to make this a four-game series as tomorrow's doubleheader will start at noon.
Freshman pitcher
Hannah Null evened her season record at 5-5 and tied a career high with 10 strikeouts after shutting the Panthers out on three hits in a 6.0-inning complete game.
Null allowed two hits through the first three innings before running into some trouble in the fourth with her team clinging to a 1-0 lead. The right-hander from Highland Village, Texas loaded the bases with the first three batters she faced, but after striking out the Panthers' No. 8 batter Null got a force out at home plate followed by a second punch out of Prairie View's leadoff batter.
That gutsy performance rubbed off on the Wildcats' offense as it exploded for nine runs on 10 hits over the final two innings. Freshman Kayla Simmons drove in the first two runs of the fifth inning on a double and
Ashley Nolan followed with a two-run single that was part of her 5-for-5 day at the plate.
Rookie second baseman
Jacquelyn Perez then came through with a run-scoring single that made it a 6-0 game.
ACU started the sixth inning with five consecutive hits as the top of the order combined for three singles and two doubles courtesy of freshman
Taylor Brown and senior
Courtney Flanary. The two-bagger by Flanary drove in Brown to make the score 7-0;
Madison Buckley and Simmons later added back-to-back RBI singles before Nolan drove in the Wildcats' final run on a fly ball to center field.
ACU finished game one with 14 hits and had six players finish with two or more base knocks. Nolan and Simmons also recorded three RBI.
The Wildcats' continued to hit the ball well throughout game two in recording a dozen more hits, but didn't quite have an answer for the Panthers' late-inning heroics in which they home team erased a 4-1 deficit with eight runs between the fifth and sixth innings.
Senior
Lyndi Smith homered and Nolan ripped an RBI triple during the Wildcats' two-run first, and then ACU made it a 4-1 game in the fifth when Smith and Buckley came home on two-out single to center by sophomore
Cara Hoover.
But the Panthers didn't stay down long, sending nine hitters to the plate during their five-run fifth that gave them a 6-4 lead.
ACU came back once more to tie the score at 6-6 in its half of the sixth.
Kaylee Crozier - who led off the inning with a single - scored on a bases-loaded error by the Prairie View second baseman and
Anna Jones came home a batter latter on Flanary's sacrifice fly to right.
The Panthers went on to put their first three runners on base in the sixth and took the lead for good on Alisa Navarro's fly out to left. Catcher Shontel Lopez then added two insurance runs on her second hit of the game.
ACU threatened one last time in the ninth, but Flanary flew out to right to end the game with the bases loaded.
