By Jared Fields, Sports Writer

The Wildcat softball team won all four games this weekend in the Lone Star Conference First Pitch Tournament. The team defeated Cameron and Midwestern State and beat Southwestern Oklahoma twice, and the wins moved the Wildcats to 13-6 on the season.

“Overall, we played very solid this past weekend, both offensively and defensively,” head coach Chantiel Wilson said.

In the first game against Southwestern Oklahoma, the team put up three runs to support Allison Crouse’s shut-out performance and gain the victory. Valerie Malkinson provided much of the offense for the Wildcats with a solo homerun and two RBI in the game.

The rematch featured more offense from the Wildcats. After an early 4-0 deficit in the first inning, the Wildcats responded with 13 unanswered points in the game to end with the score of 13-4. Jade Wilson and Ashley Whittenburg each had two-run homeruns in the second to start the offensive explosion. After the early runs by Southwestern Oklahoma, Jennifer Leal shut down the opponent’s batters for the rest of the game.

Wilson said she was impressed with her team’s play.

“We got the hits when we needed them and were able to score 13 runs with 18 hits on a team with good pitching,” Wilson said.

In the third game, ACU defeated Cameron in the eighth inning off an infield single by Heather Krumpols. Crouse started the game and went five innings, giving up three runs before Jennifer Leal finished the game and picked up the win for the team. Krumpols’ hit in the eighth scored Amber Garcia and ended the game 4-3.

In the tournament finale, ACU played MSU. Jennifer Leal led the Wildcats on their way to the 3-1 win, pitching seven innings, allowing eight hits with no earned runs and striking out seven batters. The win was Leal’s 10th win of the season.

The Wildcats travel to Wichita Falls on Wednesday to face Midwestern State for a double-header that begins at 4 p.m.