Entering the sixth inning on Saturday, the Wildcats led 8-6 over the Utah Tech Trailblazers in a must-win game to go to the conference tournament. The third batter of the inning hit a triple to right field, bringing in one run; the next batter doubled to center field, bringing in the tying run.

With the game tied and bases loaded for the Trailblazers, Ella Beeman, junior right-handed pitcher from Lowell, Arkansas, came into pitch. Beeman walked the game-winning run in on her first batter.

In the top of the seventh inning, the Wildcats failed to record a hit, flying out, grounding out and striking out to lose the game and close out the season.

“It really wasn’t any different than what has happened all year, unfortunately,” head coach Jo Koons said. “We need to do a better job on defense, just clutching up in those moments, and it starts in the circle.”

With the loss, ACU fell to 7-41 on the season and 4-14 in the Western Athletic Conference, putting them in seventh place in the standings, one spot behind the Trailblazers, which caused them to miss the conference tournament by one game.

The must-win series for the Wildcats began with a win in their first game on Friday, winning 13-10 in eight innings. Friday’s second game was a different story as ACU lost 6-3.

Pitching was a problem not just in this series but has been an area of struggle all season. The team’s ERA among the team’s five pitchers is 8.77.

“When you’re not getting what you want, you gotta do it differently,” Koons said. “[The] weight room will be a big piece of that, getting them to be able to sustain longer conditioning.”

The team’s record was worse than Koons’ first season last year, which was 15-38 and ended with a first-round exit in the WAC tournament as the fifth seed.

Despite missing the WAC tournament this season, she said this season will give the returners for next season a great foundation to build on and “heal them into next season.”