The softball team traveled to the Arizona Invitational over Sing Song weekend, but were unable to muster a win in the five match ups.
The five losses pushed the Wildcats losing streak to six games after falling in the final game of last weekend’s tournament. Senior catcher Kaleigh Singleton said the team struggled, but saw tough competition including teams from the Pac-12 and ACC.
“We went 0-5, but this weekend we played high level teams and hung with them,” Singleton said. “But never seemed to come out on top in the end.”
The Wildcats started the tourney against Boston College and the game looked promising until late. Singleton tied the game at two early in the bottom of the second inning with a solo home run and ACU took a 5-2 lead heading into the seventh. But the Eagles rallied in the seventh on a bases clearing double to tie the game at five to force extra innings. Boston College would eventually down the Wildcats in the eighth inning after scoring the game-winning run on a fielding error. ACU couldn’t answer in the bottom half falling 6-5.
The weekend didn’t get any easier for the team as it took on Arizona, who is ranked No. 10 in the nation, on Friday night. In a battle of Wildcats, Arizona blanked ACU 7-0 and finished the weekend undefeated, including a 21-0 victory over Drake University.
On Saturday the women continued play against Ball State and North Dakota State and fell by two runs in each game, 5-3 and 4-2.
Singleton said as team the Wildcats did not play well, but junior Nicole Matise recorded her first two RBI of the season on single in the fourth inning. Matise’s single cut the Ball State lead to 3-2, but the Cardinals would answer with two runs in the bottom half of the inning.
In the 4-2 loss to NDSU, junior Peyton Hedrick went a perfect 3-for-3 with a home run, but that would be the Wildcat’s lone earned run in the game. The invitational concluded for ACU with a match up against Drake, but the Wildcats fortune would not change despite jumping out to 2-1 lead. Drake used a three-run fifth to propel itself to a 5-2 win.
“As a team we now know what skills we need to work on and how we are going to link our different sections; pitching, defense, and offense together to win the upcoming games,” Singleton said.
ACU returns home this weekend for its first home game of the season this Friday vs Northern Colorado at Poly Wells field. The Wildcats will also take on Prairie View A&M as part the Wildcat Invitational.
