ABILENE - Senior hurler
Emily Seidel tossed 10.0 scoreless innings of work behind 14 strikeouts and transfer
Kaleigh Singleton cracked a go-ahead, two-run home run in leading Abilene Christian softball to a doubleheader sweep of Prairie View A&M on a beautiful Friday at Poly Wells Field.
The 8-0 and 6-2 victories lifted ACU's season record to 3-4, while the Panthers begin their 2015 campaign at 0-2.
Seidel (2-2) won both ends of the twinbill, first as a starter and then as a reliever to
Julia Montoya in the nightcap. The Burbank, Calif., native tied her career high with nine strikeouts through 5.0 innings in game one. Victory no. 2, however, was tougher to earn as she pitched her way out of a few jams and waited until the fifth for her offense to grab the lead.
Seidel entered game two with one out in the second and the bases full, but escaped with a fly ball to center that snapped a 1-1 tie followed by a strikeout of Jazmine Hicks. She left the bases loaded again in the fifth and stranded runners at the corners in the sixth, as the Panthers went on to leave 10 on base (16 for the doubleheader).
Seidel struck out the first two Panthers she faced in the seventh inning and watched the game end on a diving catch made by center fielder
Taylor Brown to rob Alexandra Loyosa of extra bases.
Loyosa also was robbed of a bases-clearing double in the first inning by freshman
Kristin Watkins, who made a sliding catch on her belly into the left-center gap.
The Wildcats scored one run in the first but couldn't cash in further from the second to fourth innings, during which they left five runners on base. But then in the fifth,
Holly Neese reached on a one-out infield single and scored a few pitches later on Singleton's moonshot to left field that gave ACU the lead for good.
The home team tacked on three additional insurance runs in the sixth.
Peyton Hedrick doubled home Brown. Neese plated Watkins on a fly ball to center, and Singleton drove in her sixth RBI of the doubleheader on a double down the left-field line.
Singleton and Brown each went 4-for-6 during the series to lead the Wildcats with a combined four runs and three extra-base hits.
Game one was decided early on as the Wildcats jumped out to a 3-0 lead by the first and held a 6-0 advantage after the third. Brown tripled to lead off the game and scored on a fly ball to center. Hedrick and Neese then reached base with one out and scored on a two-run single by
Cara Hoover.
In the third, Singleton plated her first two runs of the afternoon on a single through the left side and came home one out later when
Baylee Travers slapped a ground ball to shortstop.
Hedrick and Neese made it an 8-0 game in the fourth with consecutive run-scoring extra-base hits, and Seidel ended things in the fifth with two foul outs and a ground ball with runners at first and second base.
The Wildcats return to action next weekend at the Baylor Invitational, where they'll battle several nationally ranked teams including the host Bears, Tulsa and Oregon.
