ABILENE – Abilene Christian scored 18 runs, punctuated by a walk-off grand slam by
Avery Miloch, to close the ACU Tournament with wins over New Mexico and Houston Christian on Sunday.
ACU beat UNM 8-0 and HCU 10-6.
In the opener,
Ella Beeman checked the Lobos on two hits for the win.
Olivia Marble broke up a scoreless tie in the third when her sacrifice bunt resulted in a run-scoring error.
Riley White later added a sacrifice fly and
Bubba Rote singled in a run for a 3-0 lead.
Kaydee Bennett doubled in a run in the fourth for a 4-0 lead and the Wildcats ended the game with four runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Catrin Hoffman had a two-run double before
Skylar Padgett ended the game with a two-run single.
ACU finished with eight hits in the game with Bennett and Rote getting two each.
Houston Christian led off the second game with a home run by ACU answered with a two-run double by Miloch in the home half.
The Huskies went up 3-2 in the third but Rote tied the game with an RBI triple.
HCU scored twice in the fourth and once in the fifth to go ahead 6-3.
Sammie Shelander homered and
Miranda Lista came up with an RBI single to pull the Wildcats to within 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth.
The Cats turned a double-play in the top of the seventh to add to their momentum and then took the game in the seventh.
ACU tied the game when HCU misplayed
Isabel Martinez's sacrifice bunt. A few batters later, Miloch deposited a pitch over the wall in left-center field for the game-winner.
Miloch had six RBIs on three hits for the game to spearhead ACU's nine-hit offense. Shelander and Rote added two hits each.
Talia Nielsen allowed one run over 3.2 innings of relief to get the win.
The 4-6 Wildcats head to the Texas A&M-Commerce Classic next weekend. They will play Nebraska-Omaha and South Dakota on Saturday and UNO and the hosts on Sunday. ACU will stay over and play a doubleheader with TAMU-C on Monday.
