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(Photo by Lauren Franco)

Null deals third-career no-hitter in early season action

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The Wildcats opened their first postseason eligible season in San Antonio at the UTSA Softball Classic, which was highlighted by senior pitcher Hannah Null’s third-career no-hitter.

In the opening game against Seton Hall, Hailey Arteaga hit a home run that scored the only two runs of the game for the Pirates, but it proved to be enough as ACU was shutout, resulting in a 2-0 win.

The Salukis from Southern Illinois squared up with ACU in the second game for a two-game split.

In the first contest, the Wildcats fell 8-5, despite senior Peyton Hedrick’s first homerun of the season to put the Wildcats out in front 1-0 early. Unfortunately, the Salukis unleashed an eight run barrage over the next two innings to take an 8-1 lead.

“It went okay with it being our first weekend,” Hedrick said. “We definitely wanted to come out with more wins, but it’s a starting point, and we will work from there. Defensively we had a really good weekend, offensively we struggled a bit the first day, but our bats came around and they will continue to.”

Senior Holly Neese and Hedrick both scored on a fielding error in the 5th inning and senior Brianna Barnhill hit a two-run shot to bring the final score to 8-5.

“I do feel confident going into this season. We have some underclassmen that are filling some big roles, a great pitching staff led by Hannah and a lineup that has potential to do very well and produce a lot of runs,” Barnhill said. “A mixture of senior leadership and young talent will help us on this years endeavors.”
In the second game against the Salukis, senior pitcher Hannah Null played one of the best games of her career in a 9-0 win. Null pitched five innings with seven strikeouts, no hits and no runs allowed just one base runner. With her third no-hitter as a Wildcat, Null is now just one shy of tying the all-time record.
In what proved to be the final matchup of the weekend, as Sunday’s game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was cancelled, the Wildcats fell 4-2 to tournament host UTSA. Barnhill’s second homerun of the tourney gave ACU an early 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning. But a homerun by UTSA right fielder Hannah Boring in the 3rd scored two runners to give the Roadrunners a 2-1 edge. Shortstop Ashlynn Walls doubled in a run and second baseman Hailey Garza drove in a run on a fly out to extend the lead to 4-1. ACU’s Donnelle Johnson scored on a sacrifice fly by Callie Burris, but the Roadrunners outpaced the Wildcats in the final inning to get the 4-2 win.
“Obviously we would’ve loved to come out with 4 wins, but it’s the first time for all of us to come together again so it was a good warm up for these next coming weeks,” Null said. “We could’ve played better, but we have some new girls in new spots and all of that will come with time.”
ACU will travel to Florida for the EMU Madeira Beach Spring Invitational this weekend.
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