ABILENE – Abilene Christian hosts Seattle in the home conference opener this weekend.
The three-game series begins with a 3 p.m. doubleheader.
Friday | March 22 | 3 p.m. | ACU vs. Seattle | ESPN+ | Live Stats | Poly Wells Field
Friday | March 22 | 5 p.m. | ACU vs. Seattle | ESPN+ | Live Stats | Poly Wells Field
Saturday | March 22 | Noon | ACU vs. Seattle | ESPN+ | Live Stats | Poly Wells Field
The Redhawks are 9-17 this season and 1-2 in the WAC after a 5-2 win over Grand Canyon on Saturday.
ACU enters at 9-15 overall and 1-2 in league play after dropping two of three at Utah Tech.
ACU Storylines
KB TOYING: Kaydee Bennett opens the week as the WAC leader in batting average (.459), slugging (.784), on-base percentage (.512) and stolen bases per game (.0.46). She's also second in the WAC with three triples and 58 total bases and third in the league with 34 hits and 0.92 runs per game. Bennett also is fifth in the WAC with four home runs.
DOUBLES: The Wildcats are 17th in the NCAA with 47 doubles this season and seventh in the nation with 1.96 doubles per game.
Olivia Marble leads the WAC and is ninth in the nation with 0.46 doubles per game. She's second in the league and 10th in the NCAA with 11 doubles this season.
CATS DIG THE LONG BALL: Abilene Christian leads the WAC and is 52nd nationally with 0.83 home runs per game. The Wildcats have 18 home runs this season. ACU has 20 home runs this season from nine different Cats.
Kaydee Bennett has four and
Sammie Shelander,
Catrin Hoffman and
Avery Miloch have three each to lead the team.
INSIDE THE CIRCLE: The Wildcats have primarily used
Talia Nielsen,
Ella Beeman and
Lina Russo as the starting pitchers this season. Nielsen leads the team with five wins and a 3.93 earned run average.
Lina Russo leads the team with four complete games, 45.2 innings pitched and 30 strikeouts. Beeman leads the starters with a .256 opponent batting average.
MILESTONE WATCH: Avery Miloch comes into the weekend as the No. 4 RBI producer in ACU's D-I era. She is six away from becoming the fourth Division I Wildcat to reach 100 RBIs.
STREAKS:
Olivia Marble's 12-game streak of reaching base (hit, walk, or HBP) is the longest this season.
Kaydee Bennett has the longest active hitting streak at six games. It matches Marble's six-game streak from earlier this season. Marble has a five-game hit streak and
Riley White has a four-game. Those three players, along with
Sammie Shelander,
Elizabeth Schaefer and
Skylar Padgett, have hits in all three WAC games this season.
CLUTCH HITTERS: Kaydee Bennett and
Olivia Marble share the team lead with seven two-out RBIs each this season.
Avery Miloch is right behind them with six. Bennett is hitting .500 with two outs this season, going 10 for 20.
LAST SERIES: ACU went 1-2 at Utah Tech, taking the second game of the series against the defending regular-season WAC champions. The Cats hit .341 for the series and averaged eight runs.
Bubba Rote batted .444 and
Sammie Shelander hit .417 with a home run and five RBIs.
HOME FIELD: The Wildcats are 4-1 at home this season and are hitting .325 in Poly Wells Field.
Kaydee Bennett hits .600 (9-15) in those games and
Bubba Rote is hitting .467 (7-15). ACU pitchers carry a 2.33 ERA at home, led by
Talia Nielsen at 1.31 and
Ella Beeman at 1.40.
WINNING NUMBERS: In their nine wins this season, ACU is batting .353 with 14 home runs and an average of 7.9 runs per game.
Kaydee Bennett is hitting .548,
Olivia Marble bats .533 and
Avery Miloch averages 1.25 RBIs per game in ACU wins.
Scouting Seattle
- The Redhawks are hitting .283 as a team with 12 home runs and they average 3.53 runs per game.
- Sydney Frankenberger leads SU with a .348 batting average and three stolen bases.
- Taylor Fitch has three home runs to lead the team and is second on the team with five doubles.
- Ava Sin has the team lead in RBIs with 12.
- The Redhawks carry in a 4.21 earned run average this season but their top two starters are well under that mark. Stefanie Madrigal is 5-6 with a 3.63 ERA and Nicola Simpson is 2-5 with a 3.88 ERA.
