SAN MARCOS, Texas – The ACU softball team dropped a pair of games Sunday in the final day of the Bobcat Classic hosted by Texas State, with both affairs decided by one run. The Colorado State Rams earned a sweep of the Wildcats (1-3) in a 3-2 contest, while the North Dakota State Bison walked off in the seventh inning in to win 6-5.
ACU will hit the road next weekend to Ruston, La. for five-game schedule at the Louisiana Tech Invitational. It all begins Friday, Feb. 15 with a 12 p.m. start against the Wichita State Shockers.
Colorado State 3 – ACU 2
Pitching dominated the first half of game one, as both
Samantha Bradley and Bridgette Hutton took scoreless games into the fifth inning. ACU jumped on the board first, when sophomore
Katelyn Belch, who broke up the perfect game against CSU Saturday, ripped a two-run double to left field to score
Kaitlyn Huseman and
Blair Clayton. The 2-0 lead, however, would shrink in the bottom half of the fifth.
Isabella Navarro launched a solo homer to left to cut the lead to 2-1, and the Rams would take the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Back-to-back doubles tied the game and gave CSU a 3-2 advantage, giving ACU one final chance to keep the game alive. Belch reached on a one-out error, but back-to-back fielder's choices ended the game.
Bradley suffered her first loss in the circle, falling to 1-1 after allowing three runs on eight hits in six innings. The sophomore struck out a pair in 27 batters faced.
North Dakota State 6 – ACU 5
It was ACU who would get out to a big lead in game two, but NDSU would slowly cut into the lead and get it tied heading to the seventh. The Bison would win it in the bottom of the seventh with a double off Bradley, who suffered both losses Sunday. The sophomore fell to 1-2 after 2.2 innings of relief.
Huseman and
Kayla Keeling got the scoring started in the first for the Wildcats, producing rbi's on a single and a groundout. Bradley, who began the game as a designated player, launched a three-run home run in the second inning to put ACU up 5-0. But the lead would soon evaporate.
NDSU answered with a three-run second of its own, and would tie the game two innings later off
Calie Burris, ACU's second pitcher of the game. Burris tossed 3.0 innings of relief work, allowing two runs on two hits.
Offensively,
Tori Poullard led ACU with a 3-for-3 effort, while Bradley added a pair of hits to go with her three runs driven in.
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