For the second-straight series, softball fell in 2-of-3 games, this time to the University of Central Arkansas.
The Bears’ wins improved their record to 22-31 and 12-12 in Southland play, as the back-to-back wins put their winning percentage at .500. ACU fell to 29-20 and 17-7 in conference, but ACU still is ranked No. 3 in conference compared to UCA ranking No. 6.
The first game, junior Holly Neese singled down the left field line and brought Taylor Brown booking around the base pads for the first run of the game, but a third inning homerun from UCA’s third baseman Hannah Stirton tied the game up at one. After sophomore Donnelle Johnson doubled to score freshman Braegan Hamilton in the fourth, the Bears tied it at two in the fifth inning. A double in the sixth ended up being the difference as bears held on to win 3-2. Kayla Gomness won her 14th game and improved to 14-15, as freshman Sidney Holman fell to 18-6.
“We didn’t have a very good weekend. We couldn’t seem to pull all three aspects of the game together at the same time,” Senior Casey May-Huff said.” “I think that we are missing that spark we had at the beginning of the year. Somehow we need to find that and finish out the season the way we started.”
ACU bounced back in the second game to claim a 2-0 win over the Bears. With the bases loaded, senior Kaleigh Singleton grounded out to first, but advanced the runners and scored Johnson. Neese followed the second inning score with an RBI ground out to the shortstop, which scored junior Peyton Hedrick in the third. Hannah Null’s five strikeouts in a complete game effort earned the Wildcats the 2-0 win and Null her 11th victory of the season.
“We didn’t have a great weekend against UCA. We played solid defense against them, they just found holes and were able to get base hits,” Hedrick said. “Offensively, we scored enough to win the games, but we still left some runners on base that we need to score.”
