Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 ABILENE - Abilene Christian's offense was on target most of Saturday during a doubleheader split with Houston Baptist at Poly Wells Field. The Wildcats slammed four home runs en route to scoring a season-high 18 runs in a game one's run-rule victory (18-8), but their late-inning rally fell short in game two's 8-6 defeat.
ACU (19-26, 8-8 Southland) also counted seven doubles and a triple among it 27 hits today, and Houston Baptist was not far behind with 21 base hits - six of which were for extra bases.
The offensive stars of game one were senior
Lyndi Smith and sophomore
Anna Jones. Smith went 4-for-5 with five RBI, two doubles and a two-run home run in the first inning that put the Wildcats ahead for good at 3-1. She also scored four runs to finish one shy of the school record held by Theresa Johnson since 1998.
Jones was a perfect 3-for-3 and her second three-run home run of the afternoon clinched the run-rule victory with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Her six RBI also were one shy of the school record of seven set by Jessica Johnson vs. Fort Lewis in May of 2008.
Incredibly, Jones' home runs were her first of the season and more than doubled her season RBI total from five to 11.
Others participating in the game one hit parade were senior
Madison Buckley, freshman
Taylor Brown, sophomore
Demi McNulty and freshman
Tori Valdivia - all of whom recorded two hits. Buckley's home run to lead off the sixth was her second of the year.
Buckley doubled to lead off game two, leading some fans to believe they were in store for a repeat performance, but Houston Baptist starter Shannon O'Connor (6-6) left her stranded at second and kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard for three innings as the Huskies built a quick 6-0 lead.
ACU got on board in the fourth on
Courtney Flanary's solo home run, which was her fourth of the season, and then cut its deficit in half at 6-3 in the fifth following run-scoring hits by Brown and Flanary.
Unfortunately, the Huskies came right back and added two more runs to their lead. Kirsten Schwirtlich homered off senior and game-one winner
Peyton Mosley (6-10) to begin the sixth. Alyssa Burnett then tripled and scored two batters later on Victoria Granchelli's fly ball to right.
The Wildcats went quietly in their half of the sixth but started the seventh with Buckley's fifth hit of the afternoon. On the next play, Buckley slid into second base safely on a fielder's choice put in play by Brown and then Smith crushed O'Connor's first pitch over the wall in left center to make it a 8-6 ball game.
Smith's second-round tripper of the day was her 11th of the season - setting a career-season high - and 35th of her career. Smith hit seven home runs as a freshman and sophomore and 10 as a junior. She needs just three more over the next four games to tie Katie Bryan's program mark of 38. Bryan was with the Wildcats from 2002-05.
After Smith cleared the bases with her team-high sixth hit of the doubleheader, O'Connor got the next two batters to ground out and Jones to end the game on an infield pop to shortstop.
The Wildcats and Huskies play the final game of their series Sunday at 1 p.m. The game will be live streamed via the Game Central link on ACUSports.com.
