The softball team won two and lost one during this weekend’s series against Lamar University, bringing its overall record to 11-12 and its Southland Conference record to 5-1.
The Wildcats fell in the first game, 8-3, after sophomore Hannah Null pitched 2.1-innings and gave up six runs, five walks and two strikeouts. Freshman Allison Turner relieved Null in the third inning and went on to give up two more runs in 4.2 innings of work.
ACU didn’t score until the fifth inning, when sophomore Peyton Hedrick hit a single and senior Demi McNulty came around to score. Sophomore Holly Neese also scored an RBI single in the fifth and Hedrick hit a home run in the seventh, marking her fifth home run of the season. She now ties for first on the team with Neese and is fourth in the Southland.
ACU came back in the second game to win 7-1 as junior Alli Spivey, Neese and sophomore Brianna Barnhill all recorded RBIs. Turner pitched 4.2-innings and gave up two runs, one walk and one strikeout before Null came in to finish the game and earn the save after pitching out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth. She ended with two strikouts in 1.1-innings.
Barnhill went on to be named an honorable mention for the Southland Conference’s Hitter of the Week. She went 4-for-9 over the three-game series and collected three RBIs, two runs, a solo home run and a double.
The third game ended in a 6-4 win for the Wildcats. Spivey started off the first inning by scoring an RBI single, though Lamar came back in the second to take the lead with a two-run double. ACU tied the game in the bottom of the second with a home run by Barnhill, and they took the lead 3-2.
In the fourth, Barnhill scored on a double by sophomore Baylee Travers. McNulty hit a bases loaded triple in the sixth, driving home all three runners and giving the Wildcats a 6-2 lead until Lamar scored two runs in the seventh inning, bringing the final score to 6-4.
The Wildcats hit .321 as a team Saturday, and Barnhill hit .667 in Saturday’s games with two runs, two extra base hits and three RBI.
The Wildcats head to Arkansas next weekend to play the University of Central Arkansas on Friday and Saturday.
