Following losing three of its last four regular season games, the Abilene Christian softball team will have a steep hill to climb as the team embarks on the Lone Star Conference postseason tournament this weekend.
The Wildcats will first encounter fourth seed and defending conference champion West Texas A&M Friday at 4:30 p.m., and if ACU wins, it will play the second of two semifinal games Saturday at 2:30 p.m. against either top-seeded Angelo State or No. 8 Cameron.
The conference championship will be on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The conference championship now follows a single elimination format, unlike past years where it was a double elimination format.
“Yeah, this is the first year the conference is doing the single elimination format,” head coach Bobby Reeves said. “This means that we have to come to play every game and treat it as if it is our last. There is no safety net of one loss like years past, so we have to bring it at all times.”
The Wildcats are looking to rebound off of a rocky week last week. ACU began last week in third place with a 14-8 record in conference play, but lost the rubber match Tuesday night at No. 15 Angelo State and then lost two of three at Midwestern State.
Those defeats paired with wins by West Texas A&M and Tarleton State dropped ACU (19-15, 15-11) to fifth place, meaning the Wildcats will have to battle against the upper half of the bracket to reach the conference championship game.
This is the Wildcats’ first tournament appearance since 2009 when they lost consecutive games to Angelo State in the finals, and the first for Reeves, in his second year at the helm for the Wildcats.
“It has been awhile since we have been in this position,” Reeves said. “But we can’t dwell in the past. Every season is a fresh slate, a new start. We are playing for the present right now.”
There is only one current Wildcat who was on the 2009 roster that made it to the tournament, and that is senior Brianna Fowlkes. Besides Fowlkes, the rest of the ACU roster is chalk full of novices in regard to conference tournament experience.
“We have a young group, a lot of whom are in there first year playing at ACU,” Reeves said. “But softball is softball no matter the circumstances surrounding the game or things like that. I have complete confidence in the girls that are out on the field.”
Offensively, the Wildcats have distributes the load in a relatively equal manner with everyone producing.
Keanna Winkfield leads the team in batting average (.378), runs scored (34), hits (59) and total bases (72). Kim Briggs and Lyndi Smith are tied for the team lead in homeruns (7) and Briggs leads the team in RBI’s (37) by a considerable amount.
The ACU pitching staff has been lights out most of the year. Junior Caitlyn Crain leads the charge on the mound with a 13-6 record and a 2.36 earned run average.
Sophomore Peyton Mosley boasts a 2. 35 ERA and is 11-7 on the year. Junior Shelby Hall has a 2.86 ERA and is 5-2 this season.
“The great thing about all of us pitchers is we have each others back,” Crain said. “Everyone is so gifted, but there are days where we can just be off, so it’s so reassuring to know that one of the other two can clean up the mess.”
