Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic Tournament Central
ABILENE - Abilene Christian softball will be part of its second Texas Tech tournament field in as many weeks with three games scheduled for this weekend's Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic.
The tournament begins Thursday night, but the Wildcats (4-12) won't take the field until Friday at 12:30 p.m. when they face Northern Colorado. ACU also is slated to play UT-Arlington Saturday and the Lady Raiders Sunday at 3 p.m. Last Sunday's game vs. Texas Tech was cancelled due to cold weather and it appears Saturday's doubleheader could be affected since the temperature is expected to drop from 80 degrees Friday afternoon into the low 30's by Saturday morning.
Sunday's forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 60.
ACU has never faced Northern Colorado (3-17) and its game against the Mavericks (11-8) is the first of three on this year's schedule. UT-Arlington will visit Abilene on Wednesday, April 9, and the Wildcats return the trip two weeks later on April 23.
Texas Tech (13-6) and ACU played regularly during the first two years of the Wildcats' program, but Sunday will be their first meeting since 1998. The Lady Raiders lead the all-time series, 8-0.
The Wildcats went 1-3 last weekend in Lubbock, but that single victory was a historic one as freshman pitcher
Hannah Null tossed a 5.0-inning no-hitter vs. Rhode Island (W, 9-1). It was the seventh no-hitter in ACU softball history and first since Rebecca Eldridge threw one against Cameron on March 28, 2000.
Null - who struck out seven Rams while allowing just two base runners - is just the fourth pitcher in ACU softball history to throw a no-hitter, joining Eldridge, Shelly Owen (four no-hitters combined in 1997 and 1998), Amanda Cobb (one in 1999) on the short list.
Null's performance earned her an honorable mention for Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week as it lowered her season ERA to 3.02, which is the ninth lowest in the league. Her 55 strikeouts, meanwhile, rank fourth.
Offensively, the Wildcats batted .385 at Tech with 22 runs and 10 extra-base hits that includes a home run by
Lyndi Smith. Smith - who was credited with six RBI - was one of three players to finish the four-game weekend series with five hits along with
Ashley Nolan and
Courtney Flanary.
Paige Stevens also saw the ball well, collecting four singles through six at-bats to lift her season batting average to .593, which ranks third in the Southland Conference.
Additionally,
Demi McNulty clubbed two doubles among her four hits to move into a tie for sixth among the conference leaders with five.
Tournament namesake Jeannine McHaney served as Texas Tech's first athletics director of its Women's Athletic Department from 1975 until the men's and women's departments eventually combined. Long considered the driving force behind women's athletics at Texas Tech, McHaney remained a top athletics administrator throughout the next two decades until her passing in 1994.Â
