Softball | 5/5/2016 10:40:00 AM
Live Stats (G1, G2, G3) | Live Video (Saturday Only)
ABILENE – Abilene Christian softball seniors
Cara Hoover,
Demi McNulty and
Julia Montoya all will play the final collegiate games of their career this Friday and Saturday when the Wildcats play host to Houston Baptist for a three-game series.
The Wildcats and Huskies play a 5 p.m. doubleheader Friday and again at 11 a.m. Saturday to accommodate the ongoing graduation ceremonies at Moody Coliseum.
All three games will have live stats but only Saturday's contest will be video streamed with 'The Voice of the Wildcats'
Grant Boone handling the play-by-play.
Hoover and McNulty have been four-year starters for the Wildcats at catcher and second base, respectively, and were in their first semester at ACU when the school accepted the Southland Conference's invitation to become a part of NCAA DI Athletics.
Hoover's and McNulty's freshman-year team won 28 games and qualified for the Lone Star Conference Championship, and the following season they were part of a squad that finished at .500 vs. the Southland. Better yet, Hoover caught the first no-hitter of
Hannah Null's career vs. Rhode Island and again was behind the plate when Null broke the school's single-game strikeout record with 17 vs. Hardin-Simmons.
When Null went down with an injury in 2015, Montoya provided stability in the circle by winning eight games and saving two others. She was one of only a few Southland pitchers last season to beat McNeese State and later she topped Houston Baptist in both ends of a doubleheader.
Hoover and McNulty each have played over 100 games during their four-year careers. Hoover additionally has nine home runs and 42 RBI to her credit, while McNulty has scored 51 runs and driven in 28, three of which came earlier this spring on a bases-clearing triple that helped the Wildcats beat Lamar.
The Wildcats (23-21) have won six of eight Southland Conference series and a second-straight sweep of the Huskies could move ACU into third place depending on what happens between McNeese and Central Arkansas, and Lamar and Nicholls.
McNeese (20-4) leads Nicholls (19-4) for first place by a half game, while Lamar is in third at 17-7 followed by ACU and Central Arkansas at 16-8. Regardless of how the Wildcats fare this weekend at home – where they're 10-4 on the spring – they can't finish any lower than fifth in the 12-team league.
ACU comes into its final weekend having won two of three games at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Wildcats lost game one 4-3, but rebounded to win games two (7-3) and three (5-3).
Junior
Taylor Brown hit .556 vs. the Islanders with two stolen bases and three walks, while sophomore
Peyton Hedrick stole four bases and drove in four runs as part of a 5-for-12 weekend (.417). Sophomore
Holly Neese also hit her seventh home run of the year – a two-run shot in game three that proved to be the difference in a 5-3 triumph.
Freshman
Allison Turner won game two in relief, delivering three strikeouts in 4.1 innings of work and then Null went the distance in game three to finish the series with 4Ks in 12.0 innings pitched.
Houston Baptist was eliminated from postseason competition last weekend following a series sweep at Central Arkansas and comes to Abilene with overall and league records of 15-26 and 7-16.
The Huskies are hitting .262 as a team led by Savana Guidry (.323), Libby Brown (.315) and Shay Orsak (.306), while Demi Janak has triple crown-numbers of .295-8-24.
Laci Belovsky leads the HBU pitching staff with a 4.23 ERA, eight wins and 56 Ks.
