Comeback wins give softball a sweep of Southeastern

HAMMOND, La. - Abilene Christian's explosive offense again was on display Sunday as the Wildcats completed their series sweep of Southeastern Louisiana with a doubleheader victory against the Lady Lions.
 
Winners of six straight games and seven of its last eight, the Wildcats are now 9-11 on the season and 3-0 vs. the Southland Conference. The sweep dropped Southeastern back to .500 at 12-12 (0-3 Southland).
 
A pair of six-run innings in each of today's games sparked ACU to victories of 6-5 and 13-2 (5 innings). Sophomores Brianna Barnhill and Holly Neese combined for eight RBI over the two games; while redshirt sophomore Hannah Null picked up her second win of the weekend. Junior transfer Casey-May Huff also improved to 2-0 in the circle this season behind her complete game in the series finale.
 
ACU fell behind 3-0 in the second inning of game one and was held scoreless until the top of the fifth when it put up six runs – all with two outs – helped along by a couple Lady Lion errors.
 
Barnhill knocked in three runs with a bases-clearing double off Lions' starter Caitlyn VanHemelryck, chasing her from the game, and then Alyson Bishoff and Huff reached base via walk and hit by a pitch.
 
A fielding error led to two additional runs, and Demi McNulty capped the Wildcats' efforts with a RBI single down the left-field line that plated Huff to make it a 6-3 game.
 
The Wildcats needed each of those runs before the game was over as the Lions clawed to within one in the bottom of the sixth. Southeastern got things going with back-to-back two-out singles and a walk that loaded the bases for Kinsey Nichols, who ripped a two-RBI single back up the middle.
 
Null, however, would get out of the jam one batter later, forcing Amber Sather to ground out to third. She then closed the door in the seventh, inducing two groundouts and a pop up to seal the win.
 
Null struck out five and gave up two runs on six hits in her 5.1 innings of work.
 
The Wildcats put up 13 runs in the nightcap – a five inning, run-rule victory. Neese and Peyton Hedrick each homered to pace the ACU offense as Neese finished the weekend with three round-trippers and eight RBI.
 
Hedrick opened the scoring in the top of the first with a solo bomb to left field on the 13th pitch of her at-bat.
 
Southeastern answered with two runs in the bottom half. Grace DeLee took first on catcher's interference, and then Huff walked Nichols. Mychal Truxillo knocked in both base runners with a double.
 
ACU jumped back on top for good a half inning later as McNulty's two-run double brought home Barnhill and Bishoff.
 
Huff cruised with the lead from there, allowing only four hits – no runs – in her five innings of work, and got some major-league insurance runs as the Wildcats scored 10 times between the fourth and fifth innings.
 
A two-run triple by Taylor Brown and a three-run bomb off the bat of Neese highlighted the Wildcats' six-run fourth. In the fifth, Neese with hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in recording her third four-RBI game of the spring.  Barnhill followed with a RBI single and Bishoff drove in two more with her second hit of the ball game.
 
The Wildcats hit .440 as a team in game two, and .293 for the series, while Huff held the Lions to a .214 batting average.
 
ACU is back in action next weekend when it hosts Lamar for a three-game set on Friday and Saturday. First pitch is at 6 p.m. at Poly Wells Field on Friday, with a doubleheader scheduled to begin at noon on Saturday.