Softball | 4/2/2015 4:04:00 PM
Live Stats |
Audio (UIW)ABILENE - After playing the Southland Conference's first-place teams in back-to-back weeks at home, the Wildcats take to the road this weekend for a three-game series with their long-time rivals from Incarnate Word.
ACU leads the all-time series, 31-24, after splitting last year's season series at 3-3 with each team winning 2-of-3 at home.
The Wildcats and Cardinals begin their weekend with a 1 p.m. Friday doubleheader and play again Saturday at noon. All games will be broadcast online at uiwlive.com with Greg Sherman on the call.
ACU (6-24, 2-10 Southland) handed McNeese its first conference loss of the season last weekend at Poly Wells, dropping the Cowgirls into a first-place tie with Central Arkansas (11-1), who swept the Wildcats the weekend previous even as all three games were decided by two or fewer runs.
McNeese opened its series at ACU with a five-inning, 8-0 win, during which Emily Vincent took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, but in game two the Wildcats' bats came alive behind starting pitcher
Julia Montoya.
ACU started the game down 2-0 but scored three times in the fourth thanks to sloppy play by the Cowgirls. The Wildcats plated their first run on a wild pitch, tied the game on a ground ball to short, and then took the lead for good on a botched pickoff attempt with runners at second and third base.
RBI singles in the fifth by
Kaleigh Singleton and
Baylee Travers pushed the Wildcat lead to 5-2, and in the sixth
Peyton Hedrick hit the first of her three home runs vs. McNeese - a three-run home run to center field.
Hedrick homered twice during Saturday's 13-6 rubber-game loss, blasting a solo shot in the third and another three-run jack in the fifth that made it an 8-6 contest. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, McNeese would scored the final five runs of the game between the sixth and seventh innings.
Hedrick batted .500 (4-for-8) vs. the Cowgirls' top-ranked Southland Conference pitching staff (2.09 ERA) and watched three of her four hits leave the yard while driving in seven. She still ranks second to Southeastern's Katie Lacour (.487) in the league with a .452 batting average, but lifted her slugging percentage to third (.763) and on-base percentage to sixth (.495). And by doubling her home run total in one weekend, she cracked the league's top-10 leaderboard.
In the circle, senior pitcher
Emily Seidel ranks second in the Southland with 126.0 innings pitched and is fourth with 74 strikeouts (22 of which have been looking).
The Cardinals (4-28, 0-12 Southland) have yet to win a conference game and will be heading into the weekend coming off of a close 1-0 loss to Texas State on Wednesday night. Earlier this week UIW won their first game since February 28, defeating Texas Southern, 6-1 at Cardinals Field.
Taylor Johnson leads the Cardinals at the plate with a batting average of .329 and a .429 slugging percentage. She also leads the team with 16 runs and eight stolen bases. Alex Alonzo has been one of the Cardinals most productive batters with an average of .271 and 11 RBI. The pitching staff for UIW has been led by Kristen Hebert who is 2-13 with a 4.59 earned run average.
