THIBODAUX, La. – Senior
Hannah Null pitched her way into the Abilene Christian softball history book once more behind a riveting 15.0-inning, 11-strikeout shutout performance won by the Wildcats, 3-0, vs. Nicholls Friday afternoon at Swanner Field.
Null's effort not only was unique to the Wildcats but possibly the entire Southland Conference. The league doesn't track single-game records; however, Sam Houston reported its longest game as a 14.0 inning contest in 2009, while Stephen F. Austin's program records stands at 13. McNeese played a 16-inning game in 1984, but lost, 2-1, to UL-Lafayette.
Today's game certainly was the longest in ACU's 22-year history in terms of innings, and who better and more qualified to endure an 198-pitch outing (61 batters faced) than the program's premier pitching phenom and strikeout queen (543K). In making her 19th start of the season, Null went the distance for the 18th time, and in doing so she attained her 11th victory and fourth shutout of the season. She also broke Maureen McWilliams' 18-year team single-game record for most innings pitched, which had stood since April 14, 2000 (12.0 innings).
Null's previous single-game high for innings pitched was 9.0, which she first set on March 1, 2014 vs. Sam Houston State and matched earlier this season vs. Southeastern Louisiana (March 9) – a game in which she struck out a Southland season-best 15 Lady Lions.
The Highland Village native now is one win away from 50 and nine innings shy of breaking Shelly Owen's varsity record of 637.2. Her career shutout total stands at 13, including three no-hitters.
From a Southland perspective, Null is far and away tops in the league with 145.2 innings pitched and is one of only two conference hurlers with an excess of 100 strikeouts (134K). She also lowered her earned-run average to a career-season low to 2.11 (third in the SLC) and stands only two wins behind McNeese's Alexsandra Flores (13).
Records and rankings aside though, none of the above would have mattered muc if not for two of Null's classmates coming through in the clutch.
For 14.0 innings this game was a pitcher's duel in every sense of the word as Null was matched pitch-for-pitch by the Colonels' junior hurler Megan Landry, who scattered four base hits and didn't allow a runner past second base until the fateful 15th.
Senior third baseman
Holly Neese (3-for-6, two doubles), who three times was left standing at second base earlier in the game (first, ninth and 12th), broke the scoreless draw with her fifth home run of the spring. Shortstop
Peyton Hedrick followed with a one-out double and scored an insurance run on
Brianna Barnhill's round-tripper that came off a 3-2 pitch.
Landry left the game after Barnhill's at-bat and trailing 3-0, but deserved nothing short of a standing ovation as she provided her side with 14 strikeouts on 204 pitches. Freshman Alexis LaBure went on to finish the inning with consecutive strikeouts and later delivered an abbreviated 5.0-inning complete game shutout with 11 Ks in game two of the doubleheader, which was won by the Colonels' 13-0.
After receiving the go-ahead runs, Null finished her final frame of work on only four pitches. Catcher Kali Clement, who was left in scoring position three times and thrown out at home by Neese in the 12th, popped up to Hedrick on the first pitch. Third baseman Jewel Lara took a ball before hitting one up to Barnhill at first base for the second out, and then designated player Yasmeen Williams flew out to right fielder
Donelle Johnson.
While Landry cruised through stretches of the game, Null pitched her way out of five tenuous situations in leaving 16 Colonels on base. Null stranded runners in scoring position in the second and seventh innings after starting with no outs, and wriggled out of a ninth-inning bases-loaded jam with a strikeout of leadoff batter Kelsey Miller. Then in the 13th, the first three batters reached base before she got the out at home followed by a strikeout and ground ball to second base.
Incredibly, Null retired the final nine batters she faced after starting with 10 base hits and three walks. She also survived one fielding error, two wild pitches and a pair of hit batsmen.
The Wildcats and Colonels play the rubber game of their series Saturday at noon.
