ACU Softball Splits with TWU
By: Lance Fleming
Updated: March 11, 2012
ABILENE -
Nationally ranked ACU bounced back for an 11-7 win in the second game of
a Lone Star Conference doubleheader to earn a split with Texas Woman's
at Wells Field.
The Pioneers won
the first game, 4-3, in a game that ended in controversial fashion
before ACU bounced back to win the second game. The split leaves the
No. 19 Wildcats at 15-4 overall and 3-2 in the LSC,
while the Pioneers are 18-5 and 4-1. The Wildcats will return to action
Wednesday at 2 p.m. when they host St. Mary's in a doubleheader at
Wells Field.
ACU head coach
Bobby Reeves will not be in the dugout for the first game of that
doubleheader after being ejected on Sunday at the end of the first game.
The Wildcats led
the first game 3-1 before the Pioneers tied the game in the top of the
sixth on a two-run home run home run by Tiffany Weise. The Pioneers
then took a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh
on a solo home run to right-centerfield by Jordan Readicker.
That's when things got interesting.
With two outs and
runners at second and third in the bottom of the seventh, the Wildcats'
cleanup hitter, Kim Briggs, came to the plate with a chance to tie or
win the game. But she was intentionally walked
to load the bases and set up a force play at any base.
Lyndi Smith - who
homered earlier in the game for the Wildcats looped a 1-1 pitch toward
second base and Megan Leff. The ball snowconed in her glove and no call
was made and Keanna Winkfield apparently
tied the score when she crossed the plate.
However, after
TWU head coach Richie Bruister came out to appeal the play, the umpires
gathered and determined that Leff had caught the ball, ending the game
with TWU gaining a 4-3 win. Reeves didn't like
the call and argued vehemently with the home-plate umpire about the
reversal, earning an ejection and a two-game suspension.
Assistant coach
Ashley Reeves was also ejected for arguing the call, meaning former
softball assistant coach and current women's soccer coach Casey Wilson -
who had come to the game as a spectator - would
coach the team, along with Ashley Reeves' husband, Tanyan, and ACU
volunteer assistant coach Missy Mendoza.
That trio pushed
all the right buttons in the second game as three pitchers - Peyton
Mosley, Caitlyn Crain and Shelby Hall - combined to lead ACU to the
win. Sara Vaughn and Briggs hit home runs in the
second for the Wildcats, who scored three runs in the first inning,
three in the second and four more in the fifth to take the win.
Crain - who
suffered her first loss of the season in the first game of the
doubleheader - picked up the win with three innings of relief in the
second game to improve to 8-1 on the season.
Vaughn and Briggs each had two hits and three RBI, while Winkfield was 3 for 4 with a run scored and Smith 2 for 4 with two RBI.
