ABILENE – ACU opened the home schedule at Poly Wells Field Friday afternoon and evening, and tallied a 1-1 mark on day one of the Wildcat Invite. The hosts opened with the Maine Black Bears (1-6), controlling the game from start to finish to earn a 9-2 victory. In the second game, it was the visiting UMKC Kangaroos (13-4) who were in command, dropping the Wildcats (5-10) 8-2 to close the night.
ACU wraps up their home tournament with rematches with the two schools. UMKC and Maine play one another at 12 p.m. Saturday, with the Kangaroos and Wildcats to follow at 2:30 p.m. ACU closes the night with a 5 p.m. date with Maine.
ACU 9 – Maine 2
Bobby Reeves' club wasted no time in game one getting on the board. After starting pitcher
Samantha Bradley stranded a pair of baserunners in the top half, the Wildcats put their leadoff batter aboard via a
Katelyn Belch walk.
Calie Burris would eventually send her home on an rbi-single, and ACU was off and running.
The Black Bears would put runners on base against Bradley, but left seven for the game. A run in the third on an rbi-double and a run in the fifth on an rbi-single featured the only runs for Maine, and the sophomore would get plenty of support from her offense as well.
ACU scored in the first four innings, including a Belch rbi-groundout to plate
Anna Grace Johnson in the second. The big blow came in the third when the Wildcats took advantage of three Maine errors, scoring six times on four hits, batting around for the inning. Bradley helped herself with a leadoff triple, and
Kayla Keeling sent her home with a single to left. An error at third base allowed pinch runner
Taylor McCoy to score off a Clayton ground ball, and Johnson followed with an rbi-single.
Caroline Adair reached off another error, this time at second base, allowing Clayton to score. A sacrifice fly from
Linsey Tomlinson rounded out the big inning for ACU.
Clayton added a run driven in with a groundout to the circle in the fourth inning, building the big lead. Bradley would hang on and go the distance for her second win of the season (2-6), allowing two runs on eight hits with three strikeouts.
Offensively, Bradley, Keeling, and Burris led the way with two hits apiece, while six different Wildcats tallied an RBI. ACU stole three bases in the win as well.
UMKC 8 – ACU 2
As much as the Wildcats built the lead in game one, it was the opposite story in game two. The visiting Kangaroos, who beat Maine earlier in the day 7-0, kept their hot offense going with a pair of solo homeruns in the first two innings. ACU would get on the board, but would play catch-up the whole night.
The Wildcats scored in the third inning when Belch recorded a sacrifice fly to score freshman
Kaitlyn Huseman, and would add another in the fourth off a Huseman sacrifice fly ball. The Saginaw, Texas native took the first pitch of her career in her home park and crushed it to right center field for a double in that third frame.
UMKC scored twice in the second, three times in the third, and two more times in the fifth to build an insurmountable lead. The Wildcats did not make an error, but the Kangaroos put together solid at bats off ACU starter
Jillian Hefner (1-2). The freshman lasted 3.1 innings before giving way to Bradley, who finished the final 3.2.
Huseman's two hits led the way, as the rookie is hitting 1.000 in her home park to open her career.
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