Softball | 2/5/2015 11:57:00 AM
ABILENE - The Abilene Christian softball team opens its second season of NCAA Division I competition Friday at the six-team, four-day, 15-game Lady Techster Invitational hosted by Louisiana Tech.
ACU begins its slate of games with a doubleheader starting at 9:45 a.m. vs. Missouri State and Southern Illinois. The Wildcats will then play a late afternoon twinbill Saturday against the host Lady Techsters (3:45 p.m.) and Louisiana-Monroe (6 p.m.) followed by a early Sunday morning game vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (9 a.m.).
Fifth-year head coach
Bobby Reeves brought back some familiar faces during the offseason to the coaching staff, including daughter-in-law
Ashley Reeves, and Wildcat greats
Lyndi Smith and
Courtney Flanary. But Reeves nearly flipped the roster, infusing the talents of a dozen newcomers (nine freshman) with five returners: Southland Conference honorable mention outfielder
Taylor Brown, catcher
Cara Hoover, senior pitcher
Emily Seidel, and middle infielders
Tori Valdivia and
Demi McNulty.
Juniors Hoover and McNulty have the most experience as Wildcats with Seidel coming in last season following a stellar sophomore year at Mt. San Antonio College. Seidel tossed 60.2 innings through 26 appearances and nine starts during her debut season with the Wildcats, but in all likelihood she'll have to double or triple her number of innings pitched to cover the absence of injured sophomore hurler
Hannah Null.
Null was the workhorse of last year's staff, winning 11 games and striking out 152 batters through 150.1 innings. She also pitched a no-hitter vs. Rhode Island and struck out 17 Hardin-Simmons hitters, but an injury to her upper right leg never completely healed so the Wildcats will go to the circle this season with Seidel and mid-year junior college transfer
Julia Montoya.
Reeves said Seidel is excited for the opportunity to step up and become the Wildcats' ace.
"She's really been throwing well over the past couple of weeks and has really blossomed in my opinion," he said. "She's ready to go and rise to the occasion. She can definitely win us a lot of games the way she's been pitching as of late."
A native of Manchaca, Texas, Montoya pitched four seasons for Hays High School before spending her first two collegiate seasons at Alvin Community.
Brown and McNulty are the only returning offensive starters who received 100 or more at bats last season, while Hoover showed some pop (2 HR, 19 RBI) splitting time with Smith behind the plate, starting 21 of 49 games.
Valdivia roughly played the same amount of games at shortstop with McNulty plus three at second base, where she is expected to start and bat ninth. McNulty also can DP and play second base. She started 11 games at second last season behind senior
Kaylee Crozier.
Brown was a defensive whiz in left field and her offensive totals from last season were nothing short of impressive as she ranked seventh in the conference with a .383 batting average, third in stolen bases (15), ninth in runs scored (36) and fifth with triples (3). Five of her stolen bases came against Prairie View A&M on March 12, setting a school single-game record.
As she begins her sophomore campaign, the plan is for Brown to anchor center field and bat leadoff while bookended by
Kristin Watkins and
Brianna Barnhill in left and right. Her .428 on-base percentage from a year ago was second on the team to senior
Ashley Nolan (.435).
Hoover clubbed just two home runs last year in finishing with a .289 batting average, but both were quite memorable. Her first was a two-run pinch-hit shot against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi that gave the Wildcats a 5.0 inning run-rule victory, and her second was a grand slam in 9-0 win over Incarnate Word. Later in the season, Hoover drilled a two-run pinch-hit double in the bottom of the seventh to give the Wildcats a walkoff 3-2 win over Lamar.
Hoover will continue to divvy up starts at catcher this season with sophomore transfer
Kaleigh Singleton, who comes to ACU from Round Rock, Texas by way of Central Florida, which went three rounds deep at the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
Watkins - a speedy, slap-hitting lefty - is favored to hit in the No. 2 hole behind Brown followed by
Peyton Hedrick, who Reeves considers, 'a true shortstop.'
"We have a chance to be real good on defense, particularly up the middle with Tori, Peyton and Taylor," Reeves said. "Tori's arm is more suited for second base, and so I feel that part of the defense is shored up."
In addition to being a superb defender, Hedrick batted over .500 for her career at North Forney High School with a .688 on-base percentage, 13 home runs, 152 RBI and .912 fielding percentage.
"We'll start our lineup off with speedy lefties Taylor and Kristin, and then our No. 3 to 7 hitters all are righties capable of hitting the ball out of the park and driving in runs," said Reeves. "(Holly) Neese is a vacuum cleaner at third base and will bat cleanup followed by Hoover and probably Barnhill at No. 6 and (Baylee) Travers hitting seventh."
Barnhill was an infielder in high school but started to learn right field upon her arrival at ACU last fall. With Justin Northwest High School, she broke school's season triple record with nine and later batted .477 with 27 RBI and school record eight home runs.
Neese is a graduate of Plano West who made the Dallas Morning News All-DFW second team, while Travers, who is expected to flip between first base and designated player with
Kaleigh Lightsey, is a former Female Athlete of the Year and MVP at Community High School in Nevada, Texas.
Reeves expects to bat Lightsey eighth at the start of this weekend ahead of Valdivia, saying, "both have been very good at putting the ball in play, so they'll be able to turn the lineup over for us."
Tickets for the Lady Techster Invitational are $10 per day for adults ($5 for youth age 3-17) and $20 for a three-day, all-tournament pass ($10 for youth). Tickets can only be purchased at the facility on days of competition with cash only. Credit cards, debit cards nor checks will be accepted.
Gametracker will be available on LATechSports.com for each game of the tournament. Video for only the games involving LA Tech will be available by purchasing a subscription to LA Tech All-Access (go to LATechSports.com).
