By Brian Roe, Sports Writer

The Wildcats continued their late-season surge by knocking off sixth-ranked Incarnate Word Tuesday at Wells Field.

ACU has now won 10 of its last 13 games and owns a 20-26 overall record and a 7-9 record in the Lone Star Conference South Division.

Freshman pitcher Alison Crouse led ACU in the opening 5-3 victory. Crouse pitched all seven innings for the Wildcats, recording three strikeouts and two walks while only allowing two earned runs. The freshman also went 1-for-2 at the plate.

Crouse boosted her win-loss record to 7-5 overall with an impressive 3.20 earned run average.

Senior outfielder Michele Gereaux pushed the offense in Game 1, going 1-for-2 with two RBI.

In Game 2, sophomore pitcher Heather Cochran continued to succeed from the pitcher’s circle, giving up five hits and one earned run on her way to a complete-game 4-2 win.

The No. 6 Incarnate Word team entered the games Tuesday as the heavy favorite. The Lady Crusaders put together an overall record of 33-19 before losing twice to the Wildcats.

“We are playing focused and going out there with high intensity,” said junior Katie Bryan. “We’ve just got to continue to play hard and play to the best of our ability.”

ACU now heads to San Angelo to close out the regular season against a fifth-ranked Angelo State squad. ASU, the first-place team in the LSC South Division, aced the Wild-cats 8-0 in the team’s only meeting this season March 12 at the Alamo Classic.

The four-game series begins Friday at 5 p.m.