SAN MARCOS, Texas – The 2019 season finally got underway Saturday at the Bobcat Classic, and after multiple changes to the schedule due to weather around the country, ACU got to play a double-dip of softball to get the campaign started. The Wildcats (1-1) opened with a 5-1 loss to the Colorado State Rams, but bounced back with an extra-inning win over the UTSA Roadrunners to earn the split.
ACU will wrap up the tournament on Sunday, beginning with a rematch with Colorado State (1-1) at 10 a.m. The Wildcats then take on the Bison of North Dakota State at 2 p.m. to close the day.
Colorado State 5 – ACU 1
Sophomore Calie Buris got the opening day start in the circle for head coach
Bobby Reeves, but suffered the loss after four innings of work. Her counterpart, Jessica Jarecki, was the story of the game for sure, taking a perfect game into the seventh and final inning. ACU managed to get in the hit column with a triple from
Katelyn Belch, and put a run across when sophomore
Samantha Bradley grounded out to bring her home, ending the perfect game, no-hitter, and shutout all in a matter of minutes.
The run would come after the Rams built up a 5-0 lead with two runs in the third and three in the sixth. Buris suffered the two in the third, and Bradley took over in the fifth, allowing the three-run sixth frame. Bradley would get another crack at it in game two against UTSA, and would get a different result.
ACU 6 – UTSA 5 (8 Inn.)
After seven innings, the Wildcats and Roadrunners were at a stalemate with four runs apiece. In extra innings, however, ACU flexed its muscles. With the final out of the previous inning,
Tori Poullard, placed on second base, the Wildcats went to work with a sacrifice bunt from
Blair Clayton. With Poullard at third, Belch then came through with an rbi-single down the left-field line to reclaim the lead. After a pass ball moved Belch to second base,
Caroline Adair stepped up with what would prove to be the game-winner with an rbi-double the other way down the right-field line. ACU led 6-4, and would not need another inning.
Bradley, who entered in the fourth inning for starter
Jillian Hefner, earned her first win of the year, despite allowing a run on a wild pitch in the last of the eighth frame. The sophomore went 3.1 innings of relief, allowing the one run on two hits, earning her first strikeout of 2019 as well.
The ACU offense found a rhythm in game two as well. Freshman
Anna Grace Johnson led the way with a 3-for-4 effort, scoring a pair of runs in the process. Belch, Bradley, and
Blair Clayton each recorded two hits, while Adair,
Kayla Keeling, and
Linsey Tomlinson added one each. The scoring started early for the Wildcats in game two.
Poullard scored Tomlinson with an rbi-groundout in the second inning, and Clayton followed with an rbi-single to put the 'Cats up 2-0. UTSA would respond with a run of its own in the bottom half, but the lead was intact until an inning later. The third inning saw the game's first home run, with Riley Grunberg launching a two-run shot to left to give the Roadrunners their first lead, 3-2. But Clayton, who drove in a game-best three runs, answered with a towering two-run shot in the fourth for ACU's first long ball of 2019. The Wildcats led 4-3, and after UTSA tied the game in the fifth, the teams would head to extras, where ACU would put it away.
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