ABILENE – The No. 19 ACU Wildcats picked up two walk-off wins Wednesday as they swept a non-conference doubleheader from St. mary's at Wells Field on the AC campus.
The Wildcats rallied from a 7-2 deficit in the first game to win, 8-7, and then rallied from a 1-0 deficit in the second game to win, 2-1. The two victories push the Wildcats to 17-4 overall, while the Rattlers fall to 15-13.
The Wildcats return to Lone Star Conference action this weekend with a key three-game series at Tarleton State in Stephenville. Friday's doubleheader will get started at 5 p.m. with a Saturday noon game scheduled to conclude the series.
In Wednesday's second game, ACU and the Rattlers battled through four scoreless innings before St. Mary's finally broke through with a single run in the top of the fifth inning when Shelly Lee Zawadziik singled to drive in a run.
ACU answered in the bottom half of the inning, however, when
Kara Stutesman homered to right-centerfield, tying the score at 1-1. The Wildcats had a chance to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth, but left the bases loaded when
Sarah Martinez grounded into an inning-ending double play.
St. Mary's left two on in the top of the seventh, and the Wildcats wasted little time picking up its second walk-off win of the day.
With one out,
Courtney Flanary,
Lyndi Smith and
Keanna Winkfield each singled to load the bases.
Sara Vaughn then drove a pitch to the gap in right-centerfield to drive in Flanary with the game-winning run.
In the first game, the Wildcats fell behind 7-2 after four innings before answering back with four runs in the fourth to make it a 7-6 game. ACU was able to take advantage of three St. Mary's errors in the inning and got RBI hits from
Sarah Martinez and Winkfield to get back into the game.
ACU got the game tied in the bottom of the sixth when Kim Briggs led off the inning with a solo home run to centerfield.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Wildcats loaded the bases and got the game-winner when
Sara Vaughn reached on an error by the St. Mary's third baseman, scoring pinch-runner
Caylee Heller with the tying and winning runs.
