ABILENE - Abilene Christian and Tarleton softball each won a game Good Friday at Poly Wells Field. The Wildcats run-ruled the Texans in game one, 11-1, in five innings, and came a few inches shy of sending game two to extras, falling, 7-5.
ACU now stands at 10-28 on the season and 4-7 in WAC competition, while Tarleton remains at .500 with a 21-21 overall mark. The Texans also remain a game ahead of the Wildcats in the conference standings at 5-6.
Led by
Catrin Hoffman's three doubles and home runs from
Avery Miloch,
Miranda Lista and
Sydney Kaiser, ACU today hit .392 and slugged .706, which also included a Lista triple. The offense additionally benefited from eight walks and two hit batters.
From the circle, game one starter
Talia Nielsen dominated the Texan lineup after surrendering a leadoff home run to Kayla Wallace as she retired 15 of her last 19 batters in improving to 6-9. She averaged just over 14 pitches an inning to finish with 74.
Freshman
Elizabeth Schaefer also put together two solid innings of game two relief, striking out three, including the Texans' leading hitter Katy Schaefer, who went 1-for-6 today after entering the series with a .374 batting average.
Game One | ACU 11, Tarleton 1 (5 innings)
The Wildcats teed off on Tarleton senior Tristan Bridges in the third inning, sending 14 batters to the plate as part of an eight-run effort.
The inning started with Kaiser's third home run of the year and was subsequently followed by 11 consecutive Wildcats reaching base. Emma Rote broke the 1-1 tie with an RBI single to right as part of a 3-for-5 afternoon and Miloch provided ACU the go-ahead runs, blasting a three-run shot to left-center field — her team-leading 10th of the season.
Lista tripled in a pair two batters later and Kaiser singled home another run to make in 8-1 in the Wildcats' favor.
ACU iced the game in the fourth when Lista drilled a three-run shot to straightaway centerfield vs. Tarleton reliever Makenzie Dunbar. This was Lista's first round-tripper of 2023.
"Our girls were on fire," said head coach
Abigail Farler. "They worked to string a lot of hits together and made real solid contact with the ball. It was a total team effort, and a lot of momentum was created in that eight-run third."
With a slight wind coming in from the northeast, Nielsen did a great job keeping the ball inside the park as her outfielders were responsible for 12 of her 15 putouts. She also punched out two batters and induced one ground out.
"She (Nielsen) knows what her game plan is, and that's spinning the ball and just forcing batters to put the ball in play," said Farler. "She's switched her mindset. Yes, getting strikeouts are fun, and that's what she had success with in JUCO, but now she's learned to trust a defense that can get her those quick outs.
"I think it's noteworthy Talia started the game with a leadoff home run, and shut Tarleton down from there, allowing just four more hits. She was in control, and that says a lot about her mental toughness and will to fight for her team."
Game Two | Tarleton 7, ACU 5
The Wildcats battled back from a first-inning four-run deficit, but couldn't do it again in the seventh as Miloch's fly ball to right just missed clearing the wall. Instead it caromed off the top for a two-out RBI double.
She and Rote were then left stranded in scoring position as Tarleton's Grace Garcia got Hoffman on a ground ball to finish a gutsy 123-pitch complete game performance.
"I'm proud of the fact we bounced back so quickly," said Farler, "but later in the game we started swinging at pitches that were outside the zone. We needed to have more discipline. Finishing in the seventh we gave ourselves another chance to win the game with the tying run coming to the plate. There's a lot of fight within our team, considering it all came with two outs."
Early on, the Wildcats seemingly picked up where they left off in game one, scoring four times in the first on three hits and two walks to even the score at 4-4.
Mercedes Eichelberger led off with a single and scored four batters later on Miloch's bases-loaded infield single. Hoffman followed with a bloop two-run double down the right-field line that cut the Texan lead to 4-3, and Gaspar brought home Miloch on a game-tying fly ball to right field.
From there, however, the Wildcats' had trouble generating additional offense vs. Garcia. Even in the third, when ACU started with consecutive singles from
Sammie Shelander and Rote, Garcia got Miloch and Hoffman to fly out and watched Tristyn Trull rob Gaspar of a hit, catching a smoking liner at second base.
"She (Garcia) did a great job placing pitches on the low, outside corner," said Farler, "and sometimes we were swinging at pitches we didn't need to swing at. I think we could have forced her to put the ball more over the plate for us where we could really hammer it, but that didn't happened and we had that (middle-inning) scoring lull."
ACU didn't get any runners to second base between the fourth and sixth innings, then started its short-lived rally with two gone in the seventh. Shelander, who went 3-for-5 today, hit a single back up the middle, and Rote drew a walk leading to Miloch's double off the wall.
Rote started game two but could not escape the first inning, where the Texans scored four times off three hits and several walks. Laurén Schiek followed in relief and tossed three scoreless innings, but ultimately suffered the defeat after allowing three runs in the third.
Tarleton broke the 4-4 tie on Kelci Hill's comebacker to the circle that glanced off Schiek's glove. Two batters later, Trull ripped a two-run, two-out double down the right field line that made it a 7-4 game.
"In order to win tomorrow we have to have better pitch selection, play great defense, and want the game more," said Farler. "If we play connected with high energy and fight for each other, then we'll come away with the series win."
The Wildcats and Texans conclude their series Saturday at 1 p.m.
Â
