Wildcat softball will continue conference play this weekend at home against the University of Central Arkansas Bears.
ACU, who sits at 5-18 and 1-5 in conference, is coming off a come-from-behind win Tuesday against University of Texas at Arlington. Down early, the Wildcats battled back from a four-run deficit to win the game, 7-6.
Julia Montoya, junior transfer pitcher from Manchaca, got her sixth start of the season against the Mavericks after head coach Bobby Reeves elected to give starting pitcher Emily Seidel some rest. Seidel, senior form Burbank, California, has pitched 106.1 innings out of the 141.2 innings played this season.
Though Montoya hasn’t started much, she was effective enough to set Seidel up in the sixth to get the game’s final out against the Mavericks.
The ‘Cats were down four runs after the first inning, and then the Mavericks pulled away to 5-1 after two innings, but ACU remained focused. They clawed their way back in the fourth and went up 7-5 entering the last half of the seventh.
Peyton Hedrick, freshman shortstop from Forney, helped boost the ‘Cats to the win against UTA with an RBI in the third and a scoring run in the sixth. Hedrick ranks second in the Southland Conference with a .444 batting average and fourth with 32 hits.
This weekend, ACU will look to improve its 1-5 conference record as they face the UCA Bears who are undefeated in conference at 6-0 and 18-7 overall.
UCA is coming off a tough loss against Oklahoma State University, ending their nine-game winning streak.
The Bears started off slow until the top of the sixth when they would load all bases. Junior third baseman, Sam Forrest, set the team up for a score when she got hit by a pitch and capitalized off an OSU error moving her to second base.
It, however, would not be enough for the Bears. They would remain scoreless due to errors on their part. They dropped the game to OSU 4-0.
However, the team is undefeated in the Southland, defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Stephen F. Austin State University in convincing fashion. Look for the Bears to come out strong and try to shut down the ‘Cats’ offense.
But if ACU can come out and maintain their defense, the Bears may struggle.
Hedrick said the goal against the Bears is to pull offense, defense, and pitching together to get the win.
The first game of the series will begin at 4 p.m. Friday at Wells field and will follow up with a doubleheader at 4 p.m. Saturday.
