College Station, Texas—The Wildcats finished play in the Aggie Classic on Sunday morning with a doubleheader facing both UT Arlington and Texas A&M again. While ACU was able to take one from the Mavericks of UTA yesterday, the team dropped both games today. The first game of the day saw a low scoring game with UTA holding on for a 2-0 win. The Wildcats jumped out early on the Aggies in the second game, but it would not be enough as A&M rallied back to earn a 10-6 victory.
Game 1
The Wildcats were able to put together a solid effort on both sides of the ball. The team outhit the Mavericks 5-4, but were unable to find a way to bring runners home. UTA did all of their offensive damage in the bottom of the third, plating two runs in the inning.
Briana Tijerina and
Samantha Bradley each tallied two hits in the game to lead the Wildcats and Bradley threw a solid five innings, giving up just four hits.
Game 2
Much like yesterday, the Wildcats responded to a slow offensive game one with a powerhouse performance in their later game. Tijerina led off with a walk and came around to score on a double from
Caroline Adair. Following Adair's double,
Blair Clayton sent a bomb over the centerfield wall giving ACU a 3-0 lead early. The Aggies were able to answer putting up a single run in the second and fourth innings, cutting the Wildcats lead to one. Clayton was not yet done on the day and she would send a ball over the left field fence and into the netting in front of the scoreboard to bring in three more runs, giving ACU a 6-2 lead in the top of the fifth. The lead was short-lived though as A&M answered with an eight-run fifth to give them the 10-6 lead that would hold for the win.
Stat pack
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Blair Clayton had a solid day at the plate going 3-7 with two homeruns and five RBIs
- After starting the season 0-9 at the plate,
Linsey Tomlinson went 3-4 against Texas A&M with a double.
- The Wildcats totaled two triples on the weekend, the team had just eight triples on the season last year.
- This was Clayton's first career multi homerun game, and the first Wildcat to do it since Peyton Hedrick in 2018 against HBU.
- The Wildcats struck out 23 times on the day compared to just three times for their opponents.
- ACU gave up three homeruns and a triple in the bottom of the fifth inning to the Aggies.
Farler Figures
On Clayton's solid offensive start: "Blair has a great weekend for us offensively. She has several great at bats and 2 clutch home runs. I'm proud of how well she fought for us at the plate."
On what she hopes her team can take away from the opening weekend: "We saw a lot of positives throughout the weekend. We played with energy and played as a unit. Being able to get runners on and hit them in against Texas A&M was great, we made good adjustments at the plate. Against UTA we were able to outhit our opponent but unfortunately made some made some mental and physical mistakes that cost us the game. If we clean up our game, we know we're able to walk away with different outcomes."
On preparing for Baylor: "We need to learn from our mistakes and come back out with confidence against Baylor. We know that we have a tough team and will go to battle. I'm excited to see how this group responds. They are eager to get back on the field."
Up next
ACU travels to Waco on Tuesday for a single game against Baylor. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the game will be available on ESPN+.
