The softball team began its fall season with a 17-2 win over Vernon College after a 15-38 record in the spring and a first-round exit of the Western Athletic Conference tournament.

In Head Coach Jo Koons’ second season, she recruited nine freshmen, her first recruiting class at ACU, to join her team.

Koons also brought in six transfers in addition to the freshmen. One of those transfers, Lindsey Oliver, junior right-handed pitcher from Watauga, who previously played at Weatherford College, was on the mound for the Wildcats in the second half of Wednesday’s game.

“She has experience and she’s got a lot of energy out on the mound and the defense loves playing behind her,” Koons said.

At Weatherford College, Oliver had 19 appearances on the mound with a 3.59 ERA, 1.70 WHIP and 48 strikeouts in 68.1 innings pitched.

This year’s roster features only five returning players, including Audrey Lacina, redshirt sophomore utility player from Bentonville, Arkansas. Last season, Lacina started in all 48 games she appeared in.

As one of the few returning players from last season, Lacina is stepping into a leadership role this season.

“Every practice I come to, I just want to give all my effort to encourage people,” Lacina said. “So when I’m on the field, I just want to be loud and execute what I need to.”

In her 48 games played, she recorded a .244 batting average, 11 runs and 33 hits in 135 at-bats. She also logged a .950 fielding percentage with 61 putouts, 111 assists and nine errors.

Last season, Lacina played all her games at shortstop for the first time after playing catcher for most of her career. On Wednesday, she played part of the game at catcher for the first time in over a year.

“Especially taking a year off behind the plate since she played majority shortstop last year,” Koons said. “So, just kind of getting back into the groove of things, knowing what she needs to do to command the defense and command like the zone for umpire.”

The Wildcats will play nine more games as part of the fall season, with their next games being a doubleheader on Friday.