HOUSTON, Texas - Junior pitcher
Julia Montoya won both ends of Friday's doubleheader at Houston Baptist as a starter and reliever, totaling 9.2 innings in which she allowed just one unearned run.
ACU had to come from behind in each contest, winning game one, 4-3, and the nightcap, 5-1. The twinbill sweep was ACU's first against a Southland Conference opponent this spring and the two sides will conclude their series Saturday at noon.
Freshmen
Brianna Barnhill,
Peyton Hedrick and
Kaleigh Lightsey led the Wildcats' offense today with three hits each.
Game One Recap - Abilene Christian 4, Houston Baptist 3Hedrick and Barnhill hit back-to-back home runs, and Montoya pitched her way out of a seventh-inning jam with runners at the corners in leading the Wildcats to a 4-3 victory.
The win was Montoya's seventh of the season as she closed the game with 2.2 scoreless innings pitched with two hits allowed.
ACU started the game in a 3-1 hole after 3.0 innings, but tied the score thanks to consecutive home runs off the bats of Hedrick and Barnhill with one out in the fifth. Hedrick's home run was her 12th of the season and sailed over the wall in left-center, while Barnhill's eighth of the year traveled to dead center.
The Wildcats scored their go-ahead run in the sixth on a one-out error by the Huskies' second baseman Victoria Granchelli. Designated player
Kaleigh Lightsey led off with a double to left against starter Laci Belovsky, and two batters later she raced home after
Melissa Rodriguez' roller to second base was overthrown.
Montoya played the role of escape artist a few times today, starting in the fifth where she came in for
Emily Seidel with a runner at second and one out. Montoya uncorked a wild pitch to push the runner to third and then walked a batter with two gone before getting the No. 3 batter Nicole Shedd to foul out to first base.
Then in the sixth, the Huskies put two aboard with one out only to see Montoya get Belovsky to pop up to second and center fielder Kay Schroeder end the inning with a foul ball to Hedrick.
Catcher Caitlin Gunn dropped a bunt single to lead off the seventh and made it all the way to third following a sacrifice hit and stolen base. Montoya then walked Shedd with two outs, but was able to get cleanup hitter Melissa Herman to pop up to Hedrick behind the second-base bag for the game's final out.
ACU jumped ahead 1-0 in the first when
Taylor Brown's 11th triple of the year was followed by an error from shortstop Libby Brown, who bobble a ball put in play by Hedrick.
The Huskies, however, came right back in their end of the first as a couple of wild pitches from Seidel allowed No. 1 and 2 hitters Shay Orsak and Granchelli to move around the bases. HBU made it a 3-1 game in the third on a sacrifice fly by Shedd that scored Bauer from third.
Game Two Recap - Abilene Christian 5, Houston Baptist 1The Wildcats sprang to life in the late innings after being no-hit for 4.2 innings by Houston Baptist starter Shannon O'Connor. ACU tied the score at 1-1 on a RBI single in the fifth by freshman
Holly Vanckhoven before sending eight batters to the plate in its game-changing, four-run sixth.
Hedrick got the offense rolling with a one-out double (her 10th of the year) that was followed by a run-scoring single by Barnhill. Then after
Kaleigh Singleton flew out to left, the Wildcats strung together three-consecutive base hits, which included a RBI single from freshman
Holly Neese and a double to the left-center gap by rookie
Baylee Travers.
Montoya put runners on base during all 7.0 innings of her fifth complete game of the season, but surrendered only one unearned run in the third as a throwing error by Neese allowed Orsak to score from second and break the 0-0 tie.
The closest HBU came again to threatening ACU's lead was in the seventh when Bauer smacked a double to left. But a base-running miscue led to her being thrown out a third base by Rodriguez.
Hedrick enters tomorrow's season finale on a 16-game Southland Conference hitting streak.
