ABILENE – Abilene Christian softball swept a doubleheader from Southeastern Louisiana Friday night at Poly Wells Field to begin Southland Conference play. The Wildcats won game one, 3-2, thanks to a pair of seventh-inning runs including a walk-off sacrifice fly by freshman designated player
Tori Poullard. ACU was victorious once again in game two, 7-0, as freshman hurler
Sidney Holman pitched a three-hit complete game with seven strikeouts.
The Wildcats improved to 12-12 (2-0 Southland) with the sweep, while the Lions fell to 9-13 (0-2 SLC). The two teams will complete their series Saturday at noon.
Game 1 – ACU 3, Southeastern Louisiana 2
The Wildcats' offense rallied for two runs in the seventh inning to beat Southeastern Louisiana, 3-2, in game one of their three-game series.
ACU entered the frame down a run with a number of missed chances piled up behind them, but a leadoff walk drawn by pinch hitter
Blair Clayton against starter Rachel Hayes got things moving in the right direction.
Peyton Hedrick followed with a bunt to the first baseman, whose throw was late getting Clayton at second base, and then after Hayes uncorked a wild pitch,
Holly Neese slapped an infield single off the pitcher's glove to tie the score at 1-1.
Hedrick advanced to third base on Neese's hit and scored two batters later on Tori Poullard's fly ball to left field.
Early on it appeared that Southeastern's first-inning home run by Mahalia Gibson was going to be enough for the visitors to win, but they couldn't add to that as Holman left two runners stranded in scoring position in the second and
Hannah Null finished the game with 5.0 no-hit innings with five Ks.
The Wildcats got their first run in the second inning on
Brianna Barnhill's third home run of the season that made it a 2-1 game, but were repeatedly left frustrated by Hayes as they left nine runners on base between the second and sixth innings. ACU left two runners in scoring position following Barnhill's home run in the second and loaded the bases with two outs in the third. The Wildcats were then unable to capitalize on two errors in the fourth, and left runners at first base in both the fifth and sixth innings.
Null got into trouble in each of those frames as well. In the fifth, she got Ali McCoy to fly out to center field with runners at second and third, and in the sixth, she got three consecutive ground outs following a leadoff error. She finished the game, however, by retiring the top of the order on just eight pitches with the final batter – Kalyn Watts – whiffing on an 0-2 pitch.
Game 2 – ACU 7, Southeastern Louisiana 0
Freshman
Sidney Holman tossed her third shutout and fifth complete game of the season after striking out seven Southeastern Louisiana batters in a 7-0 Wildcats' victory. Holman is now 7-3 on the season and has 78 Ks to go with her 2.35 earned-run average.
The Lady Lions reached base six times on three hits and three walks but only two batters made it as far as second base, and both of those came in the third inning. The No. 8 and 9 batters led off that frame with walks, and Maddie Edmonston followed with a fielder's choice that resulted in the putouts of the two lead runners.
Edmonston's ground ball to third base was cleanly picked by
Casey-May Huff, who tagged third base for the force out on Brennan Bourgeois before throwing over to first base, where Edmonston was ruled safe. Jacquelyn Ramon decided to take off for third base only to be thrown out by
Brianna Barnhill.
From there the Lady Lions didn't come close to threatening. Holman walked one more batter in the fourth and gave up an infield single in the sixth before retiring the side in order in the seventh.
The Wildcats collected eight hits and did all their damage in the second inning, scoring seven times on six hits and three errors. ACU sent 11 batters to the plate starting with Barnhill's single to left field.
Holly Neese followed with a double down the right-field line and Huff drew a walk against starter Lacey Hill to lead the bases.
The Lady Lions' defense then suffered two miscues with
Kaleigh Singleton at the plate as the Southeastern catcher overthrew second base trying to pick off Neese, and the center fielder bounced her return throw into the Wildcats' dugout. The two errors led to two runs and Singleton made it a 3-0 game with her RBI double off the left-field wall.
Blair Clayton,
Alli Spivey and
Taylor Brown all singled in succession leading to three more runs, and
Braegan Hamilton capped the scoring with an RBI ground ball to shortstop. Brown's single was combined with a shortstop throwing error that allowed Clayton and Spivey to score and for her to advance to third base.
ACU's offense was quieted the rest of the way by reliever Ali McCoy, who allowed just two hits and two walks with one strikeout over the final four innings.
