(photo via ACU Sports)
The softball team will play Louisiana Tech (3-2), Belmont University (0-4), Mississippi Valley State (0-5) and Texas State (5-1) this weekend in Ruston, Louisiana.
The Wildcats stand at 0-5, after losing five games last weekend in San Marcos to open up the season. Despite failing to secure a win, ACU managed to keep the scores close in four of the five games.
Redshirt sophomore Hannah Null made her first appearance of the season on the mound and her first in more than a year, since she spent last season recovering from an injury. Null ended up with a loss in two of the games, but she also pitched a total of 14.1 innings with 11 strikeouts.
Freshman Donelle Johnson was a big player in last weekend’s games, with a home run against DePaul University in her first collegiate at bat. She also hit another bomb against Texas State and finished the tournament 5-for-12 with 2 runs batted in.
Peyton Hedrick also racked up two home runs, one against Texas State and the other against Northwestern. She finished the weekend 5-for-15 with 3 RBIs.
“Our defense was strong as well as our hitting,” Johnson said. “It’s the little things that we need to clean up, like taking the outs we’re given, getting the job done at the plate, bunting, slapping. Overall, we played hard and I think this tournament was able to show us as a team the things we need to work on to get ready for this next weekend. ”
Assistant coach Ashley Reeves said the team has a tough preseason schedule for the rest of the month but players are excited to start the conference in March.
Since the team is still on probation during the the Div. I switch, the Wildcats aren’t allowed to play in the playoffs until the 2018 season, so for now the team is focusing on trying to make it to the conference championship.
“It’s just a matter of us figuring it out a little bit more, even playing the big teams, because we can win those games,” Reeves said. “Once we get into conference after playing all these big teams, as long as we step up to the plate, we have a really good chance of doing something great.”
