Softball hit the road this Easter weekend and traveled to San Antonio to face off against the Incarnate Word Cardinals.
The Wildcats were coming off a loss to McNeese State in a previous three game series.
Though the Cardinals hadn’t won a game in conference play, they would come out strong in the first few innings but would quickly get shut down by Senior pitcher, Emily Seidel.
She struck out three through 7 innings which would help get the momentum rolling for the ‘Cats.
ACU would make a statement with a five-run second inning helping push their lead even farther.
The Wildcats would make it a 6-0 game in the fourth off of an RBI base hit up the middle by freshman infielder Alyson Bishoff. Teammate and outfielder, Brianna Barnhill led ACU in game one with a career single-game high of three hits.
Seidel would get her second career complete game shutout in the 7-0 victory of game one against the Cardinals.
Game two would start off the same way the first game ended, with the Wildcats leading the Cardinals but unfortunately would end in UIW’s favor.
ACU would start junior pitcher, Julia Montoya and she would get the first out easily off of ground ball to first. But soon after the floodgates would open on the ‘Cats starting with a pinch-hit single to right field by Cardinals star pitcher, Brooke DuBois.
The fifth would see errors made by ACU, which in turn would cause their 3-2 lead to dissipate.
In their final at-bat in the seventh, the Wildcats got a two-out triple from sophomore outfielder, Taylor Brown who would finish the game 3-for-4.
The second game’s final score would be 7-3 and give UIW their first conference win.
The final game of the series saw Hedrick and fellow teammate, freshman infielder Holly Neese, slam back-to-back home runs in the first inning, but that would be all the ‘Cats would get going as the Cardinals shut down ACU’s offense.
Incarnate Word’s relief pitcher, Kristin Hebert, would scatter three hits and a walk over the final 4.1 innings pitched.
The third inning would see UIW dominate, with them getting an eight-run lead to put the score at 10-2.
ACU would record just one more hit off of Hedrick but that would be it for the Wildcats. They would not come close to scoring again after that.
Incarnate Word would take the third game in convincing fashion with a 10-2 win.
This loss drops the Wildcats to 3-12 in conference and 7-26 overall.
ACU will be back in action Wednesday with a doubleheader against neighbor Hardin Simmons. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.
The Wildcats will continue conference play with a series against Stephen F. Austin with a doubleheader on Friday starting at 4p.m.
