Live Video (Saturday) |
Live Stats (G1) |
Live Stats (G2) |
Live Stats (G3)ABILENE - Abilene Christian softball reaches the end of its first NCAA DI season Saturday with the start of a three-game series against its old Lone Star Conference rivals from Incarnate Word. Game times are 2 p.m. (DH) Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday and will be the last here for the six-woman senior class of
Madison Buckley,
Kaylee Crozier,
Courtney Flanary,
Peyton Mosley,
Ashley Nolan and
Lyndi Smith.
Saturday's doubleheader will be streamed live via
Stretch Internet's Game Central portal, which can be found off www.ACUSports.com.
ACU softball's graduating class (which will be honored during Sunday's pregame) started the same season as fourth-year head coach
Bobby Reeves and have helped the program record three winning seasons, qualify for two postseason appearances and claim over 100 victories. Additionally, Flanary, Mosley and Smith were all-Lone Star Conference honorees. Flanary was a first-team selection and voted LSC Newcomer of the Year in 2012. Mosley also received first-team honors as a sophomore, while Smith made the third team that season before attaining a second-team citation in 2013.
Smith has been a tremendous source of offense throughout her four years as a Wildcat and is three home runs away from tying Katie Bryan's (2002-05) program record of 38. For her career, Smith is hitting .341 and has 137 RBI.
This weekend's series between the Cardinals (20-28, 6-12 Southland) and Wildcats (19-27, 8-9 Southland) is their second of the season as UIW earlier won two of three in San Antonio the weekend of March 22-23. The following weekend ACU swept Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at home and later split a weather-shortened two-game set at SFA, but over the last three weekends, the Wildcats have dropped competitive series to Lamar, Sam Houston State and Houston Baptist.
The Cardinals haven't fared much better during their first year in the Southland as they've only won four league games since defeating the Wildcats; however, one of those was a 3-2 decision against front-runners McNeese State. UIW also has taken single games from Nicholls, Northwestern State and Central Arkansas.
Thanks to a high-scoring series in which they plated 28 runs against the Huskies of HBU, the Wildcats enter this weekend with the Southland's highest batting average of .307.
Freshman
Taylor Brown leads her team and ranks seventh in the league with a .375 batting average. She also is tied for seventh with 32 runs, fourth with three triples and second with 15 stolen bases.
Smith, meanwhile, is tied with Brown in runs scored and knotted for second in the league in home runs (11) with McNeese State's Ashley Modzelewski. The conference leader in this category is Northwestern State's Cassadra Barefield, who has 13.
Smith's season RBI total of 44 ranks second in the Southland to Central Arkansas' Jessie Taylor (48) and her 93 total bases are third to UCA's Sam Forrest and HBU's Kirsten Schwirtlich. Smith's slugging percentage is the fifth highest in the league at .628.
Buckley does not rank among the Southland's leaders when using all games, but in her 17 league contests she is hitting .404 with 13 runs, six-extra base hits (one home run), three stolen bases and 10 RBI.
The Cardinals are hitting .281 as a team and led by Southland Freshman of the Year candidate Mikaela Flores, who is batting .405 with four home runs, 10 RBI and 15 runs. Regular starters Kellen Robles (.349), Brooke DuBois (.348) also are doing quite well as they've combined for 37 runs, 12 doubles, two triples and five home runs.
Flores also can pitch as she has come away with five wins, two saves and a team-high 61 strikeouts through 32 appearances, 28 of which have been in relief.
Kristin Hebert (3.81 ERA) and DuBoise (6.37 ERA) share the Cardinal lead with seven wins.
