Softball | 3/28/2016 12:15:00 PM
Live Stats | Video ABILENE – Abilene Christian softball plays host to Texas Tech Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Poly Wells Field for a short one-game homestand in between Southland Conference series. The game will be streamed live on
ACUSports.com with
Grant Boone handling the play-by-play.
The Wildcats (12-14, 6-3 Southland) come into their game against the Red Raiders on the heels of a hard-fought series at Central Arkansas, in which the final two games were decided in extra innings. ACU lost 4-1 Friday afternoon before rallying to beat the Bears, 3-2, in eight innings. Saturday, the Wildcats played one of the longest games in program history, falling 11-10 in 12 innings (3:10) despite holding the lead on five occasions.
ACU hit .241 as a team at Farris Field in losing its first Southland Conference series of the spring. Sophomore third baseman
Holly Neese continued to see the ball well in connecting 5-of-11 times for a .455 batting average, and her shortstop classmate
Peyton Hedrick ripped three doubles as part of a 5-for-12 (.417) weekend with four runs scored.
Hedrick's performances lifted her season batting average to a team high .317 and right behind her are Neese (.307), sophomore
Brianna Barnhill (.307) and junior
Taylor Brown (.305).
The pitching staff posted a 3.00 earned-run average in Conway, Ark., but through 25.2 innings of work redshirt sophomore
Hannah Null and freshman
Allison Turner combined to throw 344 pitches. Turner tossed 147 pitches in getting the 8.0 inning victory in game two, while Null had 107 as a starter in game one and 76 as a reliever in game three.
Texas Tech (14-19) has experienced some pitching issues of its own this season as evident by its 6.25 ERA and 0.8 strikeout-to-walk ratio (68 Ks / 88 walks); however, its players can hit for power (30 home runs, 38 doubles) and remain aggressive around the base paths (39 stolen bases on 56 attempts).
Junior Kierra Miles has one third of the Red Raiders' home runs with 10 and has driven in 29 RBI to go along with eight doubles and 10 stolen bases. Senior Jordan Bettiol (.349) is another threat at the plate and on the base paths (14 SB), while freshman Kiani Ramsey is maintaining a .323 batting average through 30 starts.
Wednesday's game against the Wildcats' is Tech's last before starting Big 12 competition this Friday vs. Oklahoma State. The Red Raiders recently completed the bulk of their non-conference schedule Saturday in suffering a sweep at Arizona State, and the weekend prior they won four-of-five home games vs. the likes of Boise State and Georgia Southern.
Earlier this year Texas Tech welcomed Southland Conference schools McNeese and Stephen F. Austin to one of its tournaments, and won both games against the first-place Cowgirls, 4-1 and 11-6. The Red Raiders later lost to the Ladyjacks, 10-1 in 6.0 innings.
ACU's coaching staff all has Texas Tech connections. Head coach
Bobby Reeves was an assistant there from 1997 to 1999 and served as its head coach from 2001 to 2004 following one successful season at Texas State. His current assistant coaches and twin sisters,
Ashley Reeves and
Heather Barton, played for Reeves from during their freshman year of 2004.
The Wildcats, which visit Lubbock on April 20 to complete the two-game season series, are 0-9 all-time vs. Texas Tech. The two teams played each other eight times between 1997 and 1998 and resumed the series in 2014 after ACU transitioned into the Southland Conference and NCAA DI Athletics.
