ABILENE—The Abilene Christian Wildcats' softball team is headed to the postseason! To cap off what was a turbulent season, ACU came together on Saturday afternoon and sent their seniors and graduates out in style. Trailing by as many as five runs at one point, the team put up seven runs on seven hits in the bottom of the fifth inning which proved to be the difference as they earned their first series sweep to clinch the eight-seed in the Southland Conference tournament.
The Islanders had the hot bats early and were once again able to put up a run in the top of the first.
Donelle Johnson came out swinging to start the bottom of the inning for ACU and doubled in the leadoff spot. Back-to-back RBI singles from
Shaylee Alani and
Calie Burris put two runs on the board for the Wildcats to take the 2-1 lead.
AMCC answered in a big way with a three-spot in the top of the second inning and the Wildcats were unable to answer in their half of the inning. After holding the Islanders scoreless in the top of the third, another double from Johnson gave Alani the chance to drive her in on another RBI single to cut the lead to 4-3. Corpus put up four runs over the fourth and fifth innings to take the dominant 8-3 lead to put ACU in a tough spot going into the bottom of the fifth.
With one out in the inning, Johnson delivered yet again with an inside-the-park homerun in her third at-bat of the day. This kickstarted a huge inning for the Wildcats.
Val Rudd followed Johnson with a double and was able to advance to third on the play. Alani drove in her third run of the day with a single to bring home Rudd which forced AMCC into a pitching change.
This would not affect the Wildcats as Burris singled and Bradley walked just behind her. This would bring
Avery Miloch to plate in the six-hole in the lineup and the Wildcats had not produced a hit from the six-hole or lower. Miloch would change that with a single that brought in two runs, but would be thrown out on the play trying to get to second. With two outs,
Katelyn Belch stepped up and singled to the shortstop for her first hit of the day and put runners at first and third. This brought
Kayla Keeling to the plate and on the second pitch of the at-bat, she drove the ball way out of left field for a three-run shot that gave ACU the two-run lead.
The only offense after that was a leadoff homerun from the Islanders in the top of the seventh that cut the lead to one. After the second batter reached base as well, ACU turned a double play on a lineout to second and secured the final out and the game on a groundout to shortstop.
Stat pack
- Bradley went 5.1 split innings after Riley White pitched 1.2 innings in relief. Bradley earned the win, her seventh-straight, and moved to 10-13 on the season.
- Alani and Johnson each had three-hit outings. Each of Johnson's hits were for extra bases with two doubles and the homerun. Alani drove in three runs, her most in a game since driving in four against Sam Houston earlier in the season.
- Keeling has now hit three game-winning home runs over the last three weeks. She hit a solo shot at Nicholls that gave ACU the win in extra innings, she broke a 3-3 tie in the second game on Friday against AMCC that proved to be the difference, and her three-run shot today gave the Wildcats the lead they needed to hold on for the win.
- This is the first series sweep for the Wildcats since 2019 when they swept the Islanders.
- With three-hits in the game Johnson extended her hitting streak to five games, Katelyn Belch extended her on-base streak to seven with her single in the fifth.
Up next
ACU will head to Hammond to compete in the Southland Conference Tournament. The team will open the tournament with the first game of the week on Tuesday at 11 a.m. against the No. 5 seed, Southeastern Louisiana.
