RUSTON, La. – The ACU softball team (1-3) heads east this weekend for a five-game schedule at the Louisiana Tech Invitational, held from Friday to Sunday, Feb. 15-17. It all begins with a doubleheader Friday afternoon against Wichita State (12 p.m.) and Southeast Missouri State (2 p.m.), and continues Saturday with dates against Mississippi Valley State (1 p.m.) and Fairleigh Dickinson (3 p.m.). The weekend ends with a matchup against the host LA Tech, with first pitch slated for 1 p.m. Sunday.
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TOURNAMENT INFO… The tournament takes place at the Lady Techster Softball Complex in Ruston, with games beginning Friday, Feb. 15 at 10 a.m.
TICKETS… Tickets for the entire tournament can be found
here. Adult tickets are $10 for a day pass, while youth tickets are $5. For all-session passes, adults are $20 and youth is $10. PLEASE NOTE: If fans want to purchase tickets the day of the games, it must be a CASH ONLY exchange. Cards are not accepted at the gate.
WATCH… ACU's Sunday matchup against Louisiana Tech will be the only Wildcat game streamed online. However, all five games do have a
live stat option.
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THE START IN SAN MARCOS… The Wildcats opened their 2019 season at the Bobcat Classic, and after multiple schedule changes, played four times in two days. ACU dropped its opening gae to Colorado State, 5-1, and would fall on day two to the Rams, 3-2. The Wildcats picked up an extra-inning, 6-5 victory over UTSA on the opening day, but fell in the Sunday finale to North Dakota State, 6-5.
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"It was good to get out there this last weekend," said head coach
Bobby Reeves. "We're just trying to figure out who we are, and we took a lot of positives away from these games, and we know we have to improve on things too. But it was good to get the team out on the field going against someone else."
OFFENSIVE NUMBERS… ACU hit .221 as a unit, with six extra base hits. The lone home run came from junior
Blair Clayton, who leads the team with a .667 slugging percentage. Sophomores
Katelyn Belch and
Samantha Bradley matched freshman
Anna Grace Johnson with four hits to lead the Wildcats over the weekend, and Bradley five runs driven in lead the team thus far. Clayton,
Tori Poullard, and
Kayla Keeling each contributed with three hits apiece as well.
"I think, honestly, we have a chance to be better offensively this year than we were last year," said Reeves. "We are a much younger team, but we have good hitters and we have a chance to do some things offensively."
IN THE CIRCLE… Bradley went 1-2 with a 3.60 earned run average in four appearances over the weekend. The Azle, Texas native led the way with 15.0 innings pitched, and punched out three batters while walking two. Sophomore
Calie Burris went 0-1 with a 5.14 ERA in 7.0 innings of work.
"Our pitchers did some good things," Reeves added. "We are just going to have to learn how to close out some games. We had some leads we gave up, but overall it was a good start to build off of. As a team, you have to learn how to win early on in the season. We have a good chance to do that in our non-conference slate. We are looking forward to getting back out there."
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