ABILENE - With the bases loaded and two outs in a tie game, ACU head softball coach Jo Koons turned to her bench. She called up senior
Catrin Hoffman to pinch hit.
"Just knowing the kind of hitter [Hoffman] is, and we just needed to find a way to score a run," Koons said. "I thought she was the perfect person to put up there based on the matchup, and the at-bats she had had in pregame."
Hoffman battled through a four-minute administrative delay during her at-bat and smacked an opposite field line drive to left-center that brought
Miranda Lista home to finish the Wildcats' 9-8 walk-off win over Utah Tech on Saturday afternoon.
"It was a low-and-away pitch, and that's what I was hunting for in that at-bat," said Hoffman. "I'm excited and grateful to pull one out for the team."
The victory propelled ACU to a 9-26 record this season, and 5-7 in the WAC. Halfway through the conference slate, the Wildcats find themselves tied for sixth place with Utah Tech.
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ACU still has three-game sets to play against California Baptist and Utah Valley -- the two teams below them in the standings -- along with Grand Canyon and Tarleton State.
The bottom of the seventh began with Lista fighting through a 9-pitch at-bat to walk. After a pop-out
Rachel Cook singled up the middle, and
Julianna Martinez drew a walk which loaded the bases.
ACU's batting leader
Taylor Bachmeyer was next up. On the first pitch she saw, Bachmeyer laced a comebacker that was snagged by Utah Tech pitcher Riley Price for the second out. The stage was then set for Hoffman's heroics four pitches later.
The Wildcats started the scoring when
Taylor Haywood, who later came in to pitch the final two innings, drilled an RBI triple to the wall in right center, scoring
Elizabeth Schaefer from first.
"Standing on third base, I'm looking to my dugout and cheering with my team, it was the kick-start we needed," said Haywood.
"She had a great weekend offensively," noted Koons on Haywood's 4-for-10 performance over the three-game series.
"She definitely bought into the plan we had. Seeing her be able to execute when the team needed her the most was awesome for her and awesome for her teammates to see."
After going down 5-1, ACU clawed back with an RBI single from Martinez, and an RBI double by Bachmeyer in the second.
The Cats put up four runs in the third, and Bachmeyer broke a 5-5 tie with a two RBI double to right center.
The Trailblazers regained the lead in the 5th, but Cook delivered with a solo home run to right -- her second long ball of the season -- to deadlock the score 8-all.
Haywood entered the circle in relief of
Ella Beeman to start the sixth. Utah Tech was poised to go in front again behind three walks. But, with one out and the bases loaded Haywood struck out back-to-back batters to escape.
"I'm always played with the mindset that pressure is a privilege," said Haywood, a freshman from Austin. "Trusting my stuff and knowing even if they had hit the ball, my defense was right there behind me to back me up. I embraced the pressure."
Saturday was the first time this season ACU has won a game when tied after 5 innings. The Wildcats had been 0-3 before this weekend.
"Good to see their fight," said Koons, who is in her first season as head coach. "We are learning and will keep learning you have to fight every single day.
"Two weekends in a row we have avoided the sweep [in the series finale], so if that says anything about their ability to respond then we need to keep utilizing that going forward."
ACU continues its season-long 5-game homestand with a pair of midweek nonconference contests.
The Wildcats host North Texas on Tuesday for the Mean Green's first trip to Abilene in four years. On Wednesday, ACU faces Texas Tech for the annual Purple Out game. Both matchups will start at 6 p.m.
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