Softball | 2/18/2016 10:58:00 AM
Louisiana Tech Invitational Tournament Central
ABILENE – Abilene Christian softball continues its three-week tournament season with the Louisiana Tech Invitational Friday and Saturday in Ruston, La. The Wildcats will play back-to-back doubleheaders starting with the Lady Techsters and Belmont Friday at 4 and 8 p.m., and Saturday they'll play Mississippi Valley State and Texas State beginning at 11:15 a.m.
This marks the second-straight season ACU has played a tournament at Louisiana Tech. The Wildcats went 1-4 at the Lady Techster Softball Complex while opening their 2015 season, with the lone win coming against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in a 14-7 slugfest. That same weekend Louisiana Tech beat ACU, 3-0, on a three-hit shutout tossed by then-senior Bianca Duran.
The Wildcats struggled again to win games coming out of the starting gate as they went 0-5 at last weekend's Texas State's Centurylink Tournament in San Marcos. The Bobcats bested ACU in the third game of the tournament, 13-1, but before and afterward the Wildcats were right in the mix against the likes of DePaul, Oklahoma State and the defending Southland Conference Champions from Northwestern State.
And even two days removed from their big loss to the Bobcats, ACU pushed Texas State into extra innings Sunday where the Wildcats lost in the eighth on a one-out RBI single.
ACU came back from an early 2-0 deficit in its Texas State rematch with three runs scored between the second and third innings. But then the Bobcats tied the game at 3-3 with a leadoff home run in the seventh followed by the walk-off single in the eighth.
Earlier in the tournament, ACU put up seven runs against the Cowgirls, and pitcher
Hannah Null started her game vs. the Lady Demons with four-consecutive perfect innings in what would turn into a 4-2 loss.
Against DePaul in the season opener, ACU responded to the Blue Demon's four-run fourth with a go-ahead two-run home run from
Alyson Bishoff. DePaul then got one back in its half of the fifth on a RBI double and won the game in the seventh on a two-out error – the Wildcats' lone fielding miscue of the weekend.
ACU hit .266 for the five-game tournament with 18 runs scored, nine extra-base hits and three stolen bases. All-Southland Conference preseason honorees
Peyton Hedrick and
Taylor Brown batted .333 and .412, respectively, while freshman
Donelle Johnson provided one of the biggest offensive surprises in going 5-12 (.417) with five runs, two doubles, two home runs and a team-high 13 total bases.
Johnson homered in her first collegiate at-bat vs. the Blue Demons on Feb. 12.
Wildcat pitching wasn't quite as effective as the four-person staff issued 29 bases on balls, but that number is expected to come way down as Null continues her recovery from last year's surgeries and freshman
Allison Turner gains additional experience. Twelve of the 29 batters who drew walks came around to score on the Wildcats.
