The Wildcats kicked off their season this past weekend in San Marcos. In the Bobcat classic, ACU dropped three out of their four matches. Their only win was against the University of Texas at San Antonio.
In their first match Saturday afternoon, Abilene Christian faced Colorado State ultimately losing 5-1. The first two innings, both teams were held scoreless, but the Rams’ junior shortstop Haley Donaldson hit an RBI single to get on the board first.
Donaldson finished 2-4 in the game. The only run for the Wildcats occurred in the top of seventh inning credited to sophomore Katelyn Belch.
After the first loss, the Wildcats faced UTSA in an extra inning thriller with ACU coming up on top 6-5. Sophomore pitcher Samantha Bradley was accredited the win allowing only two hits in three innings.
Entering the eighth inning, the game was even at 4-4. However, Belch hit an RBI single into center field and later Bradley capped off the inning with another RBI single to give ACU a 6-4 lead. At the bottom of the inning, the Roadrunners took advantage of a wild pitch scoring a run, but ultimately Bradley finished off a solid performance giving Abilene Christian the win.
The Wildcats had a chance to redeem themselves as they faced Colorado State once again on Sunday, but came up just short losing the matchup 3-2. Bradley, once again, was at the mound for ACU putting up an impressive four scoreless innings.
That all came to an end in the fifth inning when senior infielder Isabella Navarro hit a solo home run to put the Rams on the scoreboard. Abilene quickly lost the lead and simply couldn’t put enough offense as they finished 0-2 against Colorado State this tournament.
Finally, their last game on Sunday wasn’t exactly how they intended on closing out the tournament. Facing North Dakota State, the Wildcats jumped out to an impressive 5-0 lead after just two innings.
Scoring ended there for Abilene Christian, however, as the Bison scored six unanswered runs including one in the bottom of the seventh as sophomore outfielder Cara Beatty hit a walk off double to clinch the win for North Dakota State.
Up next, ACU will hope to bounce back from those losses when they travel to Ruston, Louisiana to play in the LA Tech Invitational. Their first opponent of the tournament will be the Shockers of Wichita State at noon this Friday.
