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Contributed by ACU Athletics Media Relations
ABILENE - For the second time in less than a day, Abilene Christian softball won in walk-off fashion against Sam Houston State when a bases-clearing double from Miranda Herron capped a four-run seventh inning in the Wildcats' 9-8 win Saturday afternoon at Poly Wells Field.
Unfortunately, a third late-inning comeback was not in the cards for ACU and the Bearkats salvaged the final game of their series, 7-2, to leave Abilene with overall and conference records of 15-30 and 7-13.
The Wildcats improved to 21-19 and 14-7 with their first-ever series win over Sam Houston in three seasons and will enter next weekend's set at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in fourth place with six games remaining.
McNeese continues to lead the Southland at 18-3 followed by Nicholls (16-4) and Lamar (16-5). Central Arkansas is 1.0 game behind ACU with a 13-8 record. The seven remaining teams are .500 or below.
ACU led early in game one only to watch Sam Houston strike back with two big innings. The Bearkats scored five times on four hits to take a 5-3 lead in the fourth inning, and after RBI hits by senior Cara Hoover and last night's hero Casey-May Huff tied the game at 5-5 in the fifth, the Bearkats countered with a three-run seventh.
The prospects for another Wildcat comeback looked promising after sophomore Brianna Barnhill started ACU's final at-bat with a triple off the right-field wall, but Huff struck out against reliever Taylor Atkinson for the first out and pinch hitter Alyson Bishoff followed with a pop up to third base.
Down to the final out, senior Demi McNulty reached first on a hit by pitch and moved into scoring position a couple pitches later on a passed ball. Barnhill held up in that situation but eventually came home on Taylor Brown's single to center that cut Sam Houston's lead to 8-6.
With two on and two out, the Bearkats intentionally walked Peyton Hedrick and instead decided to take their chances with Herron, who was 2-for-2 with a third-inning home run and two runs scored.
Herron took a chop at Atkinson's 1-0 pitch, which bounced inside the foul line before glancing off the glove of Breanna Homer at third base and into the left-field corner. McNulty and Brown scored with ease to tie the game, while Hedrick charged around the bases, making a determined effort to ensure this game would not see extra innings.
Hedrick was a step away from the third-base bag as the throw reached the cutoff, but she refused to break stride in coming home with the game-winning run.
Huff earned the win in relief for ACU despite giving up a run on three hits in the seventh. She relieved Julia Montoya, who started the seventh with a single, wild pitch and go-ahead RBI double, after pitching a scoreless fifth and sixth. Huff allowed back-to-back doubles to the first two batters she faced and a one-out RBI single that made it an 8-5 game before retiring Sam Houston's No. 8 and 9 batters.
Hedrick went hitless in game one, but was responsible for driving in both of ACU's runs the second game with a triple to right field. Herron went 3-for-3 with four RBI in the early game, and Brown scored three runs on two hits while lifting her season stolen-base total to 13 without once being caught.
Hannah Null started both ends of the doubleheader and combined for four strikeouts in eight innings of work on 115 pitches. She was taken off the hook for the game one loss after the Wildcats rallied in the fifth, but fell to 12-10 on the year after surrendering four runs on six hits in game two.
The Bearkats batted around in the fifth against Null and freshman reliever Allison Turner, scoring four runs on five hits. And after Hedrick broke the Lindsey McLeod's shutout bid with the two-out triple, Sam Houston pushed its lead back to five runs a two-run single to left in the seventh from Tiffany Castillo.
The Wildcats return to action Wednesday with a 6 p.m. game against Baylor to conclude their four-game homestand.
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