ABILENE – It wasn't always easy but redshirt junior
Hannah Null grinded her way through 7.0 innings of work on 116 pitches to deliver Abilene Christian softball a much-needed 2-0 victory over Central Arkansas Friday night at Poly Wells Field that snapped a three-game Southland Conference losing streak for the Wildcats.
After winning the series opener last Friday at Sam Houston State, 3-0, ACU lost its next two games in Huntsville, 3-2 and 4-2, and began today's action with a painful 3-2 loss, in which the Bears rallied from two deficits before taking the lead for good on a sixth-inning RBI double.
ACU scored an unearned run in the first inning with
Taylor Brown coming home on
Holly Neese's single through the left side, and went up 2-1 in the fourth when
Donelle Johnson blooped a double down the left-field line to score
Braegan Hamilton. The Bears, however, would come right back against starter
Sidney Holman, tying the score at 2-2 in the fifth on a RBI single by Kaylyn Shepherd.
Holman started the sixth inning with a 12-pitch walk to catcher Lauren Brooks followed by a botched double-play attempt that shortstop
Peyton Hedrick was desperate to turn. Holman got the ball to second base to get the lead runner, but Hedrick's relay to first base was wide of
Brianna Barnhill's glove, allowing pinch hitter Bailey Reynolds to advance. Kate Myers then drilled a double to right over the outreached glove of
Alli Spivey.
Null took over from there and struck out the next two batters, but ACU's offense wasn't able to solve Kayla Gomness in the late innings. Even after the UCA starter surrendered a sixth-inning leadoff double to Neese, she then struck out Hamilton and got the next two hitters to ground out to the circle. Gomness came back out to pitch the seventh and retired the Wildcats in order, finishing her complete game with 90 pitches.
Null kept her scoreless-inning streak alive vs. the Bears throughout game two despite giving up five hits, walking one, and hitting two. The Highland Village, Texas, native had an easy first and fourth innings, but was forced to pitch her way out of a couple of jams, including ones in the second, fifth and seventh innings when the Bears had two runners on base.
With the game still scoreless in the second, third-baseman
Casey-May Huff made a diving catch in foul territory near the Wildcats' dugout for the final out with runners at first and second base. Then in the third, Null left Briana Whisenhunt stranded at second base with a pair of fly outs to left and center.
Null survived a double steal of second and third base in the fifth with one out by getting Whisenhunt to pop up and Shepherd to ground out, and in the seventh, she got Shepherd to ground out once again with the tying runs on base.
ACU's offense produced two runs on six hits against UCA starter Kailla Searcy, however, all of those came through the first three innings as Searcy retired nine consecutive batters between Johnson's third-inning single and Barnhill's seventh-inning walk.
Searcy tossed 95 pitches with three strikeouts, and did well to minimize the damage early on. She gave up a leadoff single and stolen base to Brown in the first inning, but left the Wildcats' center fielder at second base after getting Hedrick to line out, Hamilton to strikeout and Neese to ground out.
ACU started its second inning with three-straight singles off Searcy, but only scored one run – on a ground ball to first by
Kaleigh Singleton – as Searcy got Spivey on a comebacker and a strikeout of Brown.
The Wildcats scored their second run three batters into the third inning. Hedrick led off with a double down the left-field line, and two batters later Neese hit one deep enough to shortstop to plate Hedrick. From there ACU would have only two more base runners the rest of the night.
ACU and Central Arkansas conclude their three-game series Saturday at noon.
