The Wildcats fall in four of five games while competing in the I-35 Tournament this past weekend.
ACU headed into this tournament following the Wildcat Invitational, where the team finished 2-3. During this tournament, ACU faced Lamar, the University of Texas at San Antonio, South Dakota State and Texas A&M – Corpus Christi.
On Friday, the Wildcats played against Lamar and UTSA, resulting in two losses.
ACU gained their first loss, 4-6 while meeting Lamar first on Friday.
Lamar was able to start out strong by getting a run in the first inning and then holding out the lead for the remainder of the game. The Wildcats were able to pull in the lead by two but were unable to lower the deficit.
Junior pitcher Talia Nielsen started on the mound for ACU, pitching 4.0 innings, with graduate pitcher Lauren Schiek closing the game. In the fourth inning, freshman infielder Sammie Shelander hit a solo home run, starting a third-inning run for the Wildcats.
Later that day, ACU faced UTSA, falling in a hard 6-15 loss.
The Wildcats started off in the first inning quickly with Shelander hitting an RBI, putting the Wildcats on the board. Yet in the third inning, the Roadrunners went on an eight-run streak, pushing UTSA up on the Wildcats. Despite gaining three more runs, the Roadrunners came back with seven runs, pushing ACU to the loss.
Junior pitcher Riley White threw for 2.0 innings for the Wildcats with Nielsen closing out the game with 2.1 innings. The Wildcats used doubles in the fifth inning to run up their score.
On Saturday, ACU pulled out a win against Lamar in a second tournament matchup, 11-5.
ACU once again was able to pull out ahead in the first inning, followed by a five-run gain in the third inning. With Lamar putting up four runs in the fifth inning, the Wildcats were able to come back in the sixth inning, also putting up four runs.
White pitched again for the Wildcats, throwing for all seven innings and recording four strikeouts. Red-shirt freshman Bubba Rote and junior catcher Avery Miloch both hit solo home runs, giving ACU the lead they needed.
In the second matchup on Saturday, the Wildcats faced South Dakota State, falling in a close battle, 9-10.
The game started off slow with SDSU scoring one run in the first inning and ACU unable to secure a run in the first two innings. Later in the game, the Jackrabbits were able to rack up the runs in the fourth and fifth inning, while ACU was able to pull their runs together in the last three innings, but it was not enough to beat the Jackrabbits offense.
Nielsen and Schiek recorded four strikeouts between the starter and the closer. This game was a high homerun game for the Wildcats with Rote, Miloch, and junior catcher Sydney Kaiser all homering once.
In the final game of the tournament, the Wildcats faced Texas A&M – Corpus Christi on Sunday, losing 5-6.
The Wildcats were able to pull ahead by two runs in the first inning and were able to hold the Islanders back with one run in the second inning. But in the sixth inning, ACU could not control the Islanders from gaining four runs and pushing out ahead.
White pitched for 5.0 innings, tallying three strikeouts but managed to receive the loss. Once again for the third game in a row, Miloch hit another homerun but was unable to give ACU the win.
The Wildcats next head to Austin for the Lone Star State Invitational this weekend. ACU will take on Texas Southern at 11 a.m. and Virginia Tech at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Texas Southern at 12:30 p.m. and Texas at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, and Virginia Tech at 9:30 on Sunday.
