Live Stats (Saturday) |
Live Stats (Sunday)
ABILENE - Winners of five of its last six games, the Abilene Christian softball team heads south to San Antonio this weekend for the start of a three-game series against their longtime rivals from Incarnate Word.
The Wildcats and Cardinals will play a 2 p.m. doubleheader Saturday followed by a single game at noon Sunday. ACU lead its all-time series with UIW, 28-21, after losing two of three games during their last year together in the Lone Star Conference.
In a rivalry that dates all the way back to 2000, both schools are currently in their first year of NCAA D-I transition as members of the Southland Conference, and as such, will play an abbreviated conference schedule of 21 games including six against one another. The 10 other Southland schools will meanwhile play a 24-game conference schedule.
UIW will make the return trip to Abilene for a three-game set scheduled for May 3 and 4.
ACU (10-15, 0-0 Southland) perhaps played its two best games of the season Tuesday as the Wildcats swept a doubleheader from the eight-time NAIA champions from Oklahoma City. ACU won the first game, 5-4, after scoring two runs in the third inning and three more in the fourth as they snapped the Stars' 21-game winning streak. In the nightcap, senior
Peyton Mosley gave up just two hits and one walk to a team that entered the doubleheader hitting a collective .370.
Freshman
Hannah Null tossed her eighth complete game of the year in game one and struck out six in lifting her season total to 90, which is tied for the second most in the Southland and one behind leader Carlie Thomas of Stephen F. Austin. She also ranks sixth among the league leaders with a 2.50 ERA.
On offense, the Wildcats are hitting .337 and have been led as of late by senior
Ashley Nolan, who is in the midst of an 11-game hitting streak, and
Taylor Brown, who is 14-for-18 (.778) during her six-game hitting streak.
Nolan went 3-for-5 with a double in two starts vs the Stars, while Brown - a freshman - collected four hits in six at-bats, including a game-winning two-run single in game one.
Sophomore
Demi McNulty - who drove in three runs vs. OKC - broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning of game two vs. the Stars with a two-run double to center, and sophomore
Cara Hoover added an insurance run two batters later with her second hit of the game.
Incarnate Word has lost its last two games and seven of nine since the start of March, dropping its win-loss record to 11-15. Last weekend, the Cardinals were swept by Houston-Victoria in two games, and lost three of four prior to that during a home-and-home series vs. St. Edward's.
UIW is hitting .291 led by Whitney Waltrip's .410 average, which includes two home runs and 12 RBI. The Cardinals' four-woman pitching staff, meanwhile, has a 5.19 ERA and 104 strikeouts.
Mikaela Flores has been the ace of the Cardinals' rotation with five wins, 2.87 ERA and 43 Ks.
