LAKE CHARLES, La. – Following three weeks of toying with its Southland competition, McNeese State had its nine-game conference-winning streak snapped Friday night by Abilene Christian, 4-2, in game one of their doubleheader at Cowgirl Diamond.
The Wildcats (13-16, 7-4 Southland) came close to making it a sweep after sophomore
Peyton Hedrick tied the score at 3-3 on a seventh-inning RBI double, but the Cowgirls (25-7, 10-1 Southland) escaped with a split after Emily Vincent's infield single scored Taylor Goree in the bottom of the 10th.
McNeese appeared unstoppable until tonight as it began league play on March 11 with five-consecutive run-rule wins against Sam Houston State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before beating the Islanders in the series finale, 7-0. The Cowgirls went on to blank Houston Baptist in three consecutive games by scores of 8-0, 8-0 and 11-0, and earlier this week they pushed their shutout streak to six games after defeating Southern Miss on the road, 6-0.
McNeese finally surrendered its first run close to two weeks Wednesday night in a 2-1 win at South Alabama, and starter Rachel Smith tonight held the Wildcats scoreless for 3.0 innings before running into trouble in the fourth while holding a 2-0 lead.
Smith hit the first two batters she faced and loaded the bases with one out on senior
Cara Hoover's single to left field. First baseman
Casey-May Huff was then able to bring a run home on a fielder's choice RBI combined with a throwing error by McNeese catcher Aubree Turbeville.
The score remained 2-1 in McNeese's favor until the sixth, when with two outs and two on base, junior designated player
Alli Spivey plated the game-tying run with a single. Two more runs scored on the next play after Smith made an errant throw trying to get senior
Demi McNulty at first base.
Scoring on the error were sophomore
Alyson Bishoff and Spivey.
McNeese had runners on base all game vs. redshirt sophomore
Hannah Null, and threatened once more in the sixth with a runner on third base and two outs. But Null stranded her there with a fly ball to left. Then in the seventh, Null caught Goree looking at strike three to end the game with runners at first and second base.
Null recorded only two punch outs in her complete game win, but tossed just 57 pitches, which allowed her to come back and pitch 3.1 innings of relief in game two.
Of Null's five walks in game one, four of them were to the defending Southland Conference Player of the Year Erika Piancastelli. The Wildcats gave the McNeese third baseman four additional free passes in game two, but the one time they didn't she made them pay with a first-inning solo home run.
The Cowgirls added a second run that inning off ACU starter Huff after right fielder Tori Yanitor singled in Goree, who reached first base on a two-out error by Hedrick.
Hedrick, however, would soon help her team's cause both defensively and offensively. She threw a runner out a home plate in the bottom of the second, and with two outs in the third inning she tied the score at 2-2 with her sixth home run on the spring.
The ball continued to find Hedrick into the fifth inning, and despite catching a line drive and throwing a runner out at third base that frame, her second of three fielding errors allowed Morgan Catron to reach base. Catron would score two batters later on an infield single that gave McNeese a 3-2 lead.
Hedrick entered today's doubleheader with only one error through the team's first 27 games.
McNeese carried its one-run lead into the seventh, where Cowgirls' starter Jamie Allred was lifted for Vincent after issuing a one-out walk to McNulty. Leadoff batter
Taylor Brown then singled to left for her third hit of the game, and Hedrick followed with a run-scoring gap shot to left-center field.
Vincent bounced back with consecutive strikeouts of
Holly Neese and
Brianna Barnhill and went on to retire the final 11 Wildcats she faced in improving to 8-2 on the season.
Null came into pitch after the sixth inning and wriggled her way out of three jams, including a bases-loaded situation with one out in the seventh. McNulty would turn an unassisted double play to end the eighth, and in the ninth inning, Brown threw out Piancastelli at home plate from center field.
The two teams started the 10th inning with runners at second base. ACU left theirs at third, as Vincent got to Neese to pop up and Barnhill to strike out following Hedrick's sacrifice bunt.
Yanitor bunted Goree to third base vs. Null and then Vincent delivered the game-winning single following two hours and 36 minutes of playing time.
Huff lasted 4.1 innings and 40 pitches in her start. Senior
Julia Montoya, who allowed two hits through 1.2 scoreless innings of work, followed Huff to the circle, and Null tossed only 22 pitches in the nightcap and 79 total through 10.1 innings pitched.
The Wildcats and Cowgirls return to the field Saturday at noon for their rubber game.
