ABILENE - Abilene Christian softball collected 18 runs on 17 hits, played tremendous defense and received 11.0 solid innings of work from junior pitcher
Julia Montoya during its 9-1 and 9-5 victories over neighboring Hardin-Simmons Wednesday night at Poly Wells Field.
"The whole team did a great job ... and it's always good to win no matter who you play," said head coach
Bobby Reeves. "We had our struggles last weekend but hopefully tonight's results will carry us into the weekend now that we have a good taste in our mouth."
The Wildcats and starting pitcher
Emily Seidel survived a rocky first inning in game one as the Cowgirls left the bases loaded, but after the senior allowed HSU to jam them once more in the second Reeves called Montoya in from the bullpen.
And she completely baffled the Cowgirls from then until the end of the game.
Entering the game with the score tied a 1-1 and no outs, Montoya got No. 2 batter Sydnie Darden to pop up on the infield. The next batter Keagan Jiminez then lined out to left fielder
Melissa Rodriguez, but the runner at third base - Katelyn Joyner - never budged toward home plate. And with two outs, Montoya recorded the second of her eight fly outs by getting Kara LeLeux to loft one up to
Peyton Hedrick at shortstop.
HSU's Braleigh Middleton singled down the left-field line to begin the third, but that would be the only hit allowed by Montoya in game one as she proceeded to retire the final nine batters of the ball game with four strikeouts mixed in - and she did it all on just 37 pitches though 4.0 innings.
"What we always talk to our pitchers about first is getting strike one," said Reeves, "and once we do that then we're going to start throwing our pitches, spinning it and hitting our spots. Julia did a great job throwing both games, got the pop ups when she needed them, and kept runners off base."
Montoya was equally efficient throughout her game two start (85 pitches) and was the recipient of some outstanding defensive plays. Her teammates turned a 6-3-5 double play with a runner at second base in the first, and in the following inning
Taylor Brown threw Middleton out at second base from the center-field wall.
Right fielder
Brianna Barnhill showed off her arm in the third, throwing designated player Alexis Vines out at first base, and in the fifth left fielder
Melissa Rodriguez robbed Keagan Jiminez of a run-scoring, extra-base hit.
Middleton was rejected once again in the sixth after a fly to shallow center field popped off the glove of Hedrick and into the mitt of Brown. Â
"They all worked real hard on their defensive drills this week," said Reeves. "I was very pleased with their workouts and even though they got tired they still fought through it to make some great plays tonight and only make one error."
Offensively, seven of ACU's 17 hits went for extra bases as Hedrick set a new individual single-game record with three triples in game two. The old record of two was originally set by Teela Clark in February of 1997Â when the Wildcats totaled three triples vs Texas-Permian Basin.
But tonight ACU finished the second game with four triples and had five between both contests with the other two coming off the bat of Brown, who now has seven on the spring.
Hedrick ripped her first triple to center field in the first inning off Genia Jones to score Brown, and made it a 2-0 game one batter later on
Holly Neese's ground ball to the shortstop.
The score stayed that way until the fourth when Lauren Williams tied the game on a two-run shot to straightaway center with two outs.
The Wildcats, however, were quick to respond with five runs in the bottom half of that inning. ACU put its first two runners on and broke the tie with one out on a single up the middle by
Baylee Travers, and pinch hitter
Kaleigh Singleton followed with a shot down the left-field line.
Travers' pinch runner
Tori Valdivia made it a 5-2 game hustling home on
Demi McNulty's groundball to short and then Brown and Hedrick socked back-to-back triples to the wall in right-center field.
The Wildcats tacked on two insurance runs between the fifth and sixth innings with Hedrick scoring the final run on a wild pitch by reliever Lara Ammermann after she belted her third triple in four at-bats.
"I thought we swung the bats well and had some big innings offensively," said Reeves. "And when you see how many triples we ended up with that tells me we're hitting the ball right on the nose."
HSU made things a little interesting in its final at-bat in the seventh, scoring one run on a squeeze bunt by Darden and two on a home run by Jiminez.
In game one as Montoya was cruising, the Wildcats broke their 1-1 tie with the Cowgirls during a four-run third inning in which they sent nine batters to the plate against 10-game winner Tori Rodriguez.
Hedrick delivered the go-ahead run on a ground ball to third and Neese followed with one of her two RBI base hits. ACU soon again loaded the bases with one out and got two more runs across on a hit by pitch and sacrifice fly to center.
The Wildcats scored twice in the fourth to push their lead to 7-1. And after Brown tripled home Rodriguez in the fifth, she scored the game-ending run on a wild pitch by Rodriguez.
The Wildcats return to action Friday at 4 p.m. for the start of a three-game series vs. Stephen F. Austin. ACU and the Ladyjacks play a doubleheader Friday and single game Saturday at noon.
