Softball | 4/7/2016 3:03:00 PM
Live Stats (G1, G2, G3) | Video (Friday) | Audio (Saturday) ABILENE – Abilene Christian softball hits the halfway point on its Southland Conference calendar this weekend, playing host to a three-game series against Incarnate Word at Poly Wells Field. The Wildcats and Cardinals have a Friday doubleheader starting at 5 p.m. and a single game Saturday at 1 p.m.
Live stats are provided for all three games. Both ends of the twin bill will be video streamed, while the series finale is going to be an audio-only broadcast.
The Wildcats (13-17, 7-5 Southland) come into this weekend on a bit of a slide, having lost their last two conference series to Central Arkansas and McNeese with a midweek loss to Texas Tech pinned in between. However, they came very close to taking the series from the first-place Cowgirls (26-8, 11-1 Southland) as a 4-2 win was followed by an extra-inning defeat, 4-3.
ACU lost 5-1 in the series finale, but became the first Southland team this spring not to be run-ruled or shutout by the Cowgirls, which outscored Sam Houston State, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Houston Baptist by a combined score of 87-7.
The Wildcats' offense was largely held in check by the league's best pitching staff, but leadoff hitter
Taylor Brown managed to bat .333 with two extra-base hits and a run scored, while shortstop
Peyton Hedrick crushed two home run in taking over the team lead with six.
Holly Neese also clubbed a pair of doubles and is hitting .303 on the season.
ACU's pitchers posted an ERA similar to the Cowgirls, 1.57 to 1.46, but a bit of wildness led to 16 walks and two hit batsmen. Additionally, the Wildcats' normally reliable defense made seven errors that led to six unearned runs.
McNeese remains atop the Southland standings with the series win, but Nicholls – winners of eight-straight games – is only 1.0 game behind at 9-2 followed by the 8-4 Lamar Cardinals and the 7-5 Wildcats.
The UIW Cardinals, meanwhile, helped their cause last weekend with a three-game sweep of the HBU Huskies that moved them into a tie for eighth with Southeastern Louisiana at 5-7. UIW beat HBU by scores of 5-2, 5-2 and 2-1.
The Cardinals are hitting .270 as a team led by sluggers Mikaela Flores (.373), Darianne Hale (.333) and Alex Alonzo (.301), who is tied for seventh in the Southland with six home runs.
Hale also is one of five pitchers on the UIW staff, which has a collective ERA of 5.11.
ACU and UIW have met 58 times since 1997 with the Wildcats leading the all-time series 32-26. The Wildcats won two of three when the two schools joined the Southland Conference in 2014, but UIW captured last year's series played in San Antonio.
