‘Jacks Split Doubleheader with ‘Cats to Close Out Series

Saturday, April 13

Nacogdoches, TX

12:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

12-32, 5-11

Abilene Christian University

15-23, 7-9

Abilene Christian

Stephen F. Austin

‘Jacks Split Doubleheader with ‘Cats to Close Out Series

4/13/2024 7:30:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Peter Trainor, Student Assistant for Strategic Communications

NACOGDOCHES, Texas. - The Stephen F. Austin Softball team (13-32, 6-11) split the Saturday afternoon series finale doubleheader with the visiting Abilene Christian Wildcats (15-24, 7-10) as ACU claimed the opening game 9-4, before SFA ended the series on a high note with a 2-0 win.

Game 1: ACU 9, SFA 4

The Wildcats coming off a win in yesterday's series opener, started the first game of the doubleheader in similar fashion as they would score a pair of runs in the first inning to take an early 2-0 lead. However, runs were hard to come by for both sides for the next three innings as neither team would be able to get on the board and the Wildcats still held a 2-0 lead heading to the fifth inning. ACU would post four more runs in the top of the fifth to take a 6-0 lead over SFA. However, just as they have all season, these Lumberjacks continued to battle until their very last out as they would respond to ACU's four-run fifth, with a four-run bottom of the sixth inning to trim the ACU lead to 6-4 heading to the seventh inning.

The bottom of the sixth inning saw the Lumberjacks work some more of their signature two-out magic as Alex Dubose would draw a walk, which was followed shortly after by Ellie Vance sending a single back up the middle to move Dubose to second and give SFA a pair of runners on-base. Brittany Coe would step in and record her second hit of the afternoon as she would send a solid base knock to left center field to score Dubose and move Vance to third to make the score 6-1. However, SFA would not be done there as Chloe Reneau would come up next and send a rocket to the shortstop that fell for a infield hit, scoring Vance and making the score 6-2. Mikaelah Burkland would cap the big SFA inning by sending a towering flyball to deep left field that one-hopped off the left field wall and scored both Reneau and Coe to trim the lead down to just 6-4 heading to the seventh. The Wildcats would tack on three runs in the top of the seventh, and unfortunately for SFA they were unable to find the equalizing runs in this one as they ultimately fell 9-4 in game one of the doubleheader.

Despite the loss, the SFA bats were red-hot in game one as they totaled nine hits as a team. A terrific trio of Lumberjacks recorded a pair of hits in this one as Brittany Coe (2-3, R, RBI), Chloe Reneau (2-3, R, RBI), and Mikaelah Burkland (2-3, 2B, 2 RBI) did all the scoring damage for SFA as each recorded a pair of hits and at least one RBI each. In addition to Reneau, Coe, and Burkland, Ellie Vance (1-4, R), Mallory Webb (1-4), and Madison Nguyen (1-4) formed a solid hitting threesome of their own as all three recorded base hits for SFA, while Alex Dubose (0-0, BB, R) drew a walk in her lone at-bat and came around to score on Coe's second hit of the game.

The SFA defense turned a pair of fine defensive plays in the fourth and fifth innings to keep the ACU offense off the board. In the top of the fourth inning, Mikaelah Burkland would reel in a flyball to right field, and immediately threw a laser all the way to third base to the awaiting glove of Kylie Bishop to turn a nifty double play and nab a would-be advancing runner for ACU in the process. Ellie Vance would follow suit in the top of the fifth as she would make a diving stop to prevent a ball from going into right field and would throw a dart home to Brittany Coe from her knees to gun down a runner for ACU and prevent a run from scoring for the Wildcats.

Aydenne Brown drew the start in the circle for SFA in game one and struck out four hitters over 4.2 innings pitched, while Kayla Palomino pitched 2.1 innings of relief for SFA and struck out four batters of her own. Brittany Coe continues to remain a busy bee on defense as she led the team with nine putouts, while Ellie Vance led the team with two assists defensively.

Game 2: SFA 2, ACU 0

The series finale and the closing game of the doubleheader offered a heated and intense pitching duel between Brooke Gainous of SFA and Bubba Rote of ACU. The Lumberjacks would waste no time getting on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first as Madison Nguyen would single to lead off the inning, which was followed by a Hope Lusk single to right field, and an Ellie Vance walk to load the bases for SFA. Amiah Galcatcher would step in with the bases juiced and showed incredible discipline as she laid off some tough pitches and drew a walk to get SFA on the board early with a 1-0 lead. The next three innings offered a back-and-forth duel of pitchers as neither team was able to find the scoreboard with SFA still holding a 1-0 lead heading to the fifth inning.

The bottom of the fifth inning saw SFA work some sneaky baserunning to gain a critical insurance run in a low scoring affair. Mallory Webb would leadoff the bottom of the fifth with a walk, and would later advance to second on an excellent sacrifice bunt from Mikaelah Burkland. Madison Nguyen would follow suit by laying down another flawless bunt as she would reach first safely with her blazing speed and advance Webb to third in the process. What happened following the Nguyen single was pure chaos on the basepaths as SFA would pull off a successful double steal, in which Nguyen would successfully swipe second while Webb would break for the plate while the defense focused on Nguyen and would sneak right into home on a bang-bang play at home plate to score SFA's second run of the game and give Brooke Gainous a massive insurance run. Brooke Gainous would do all the heavy lifting from that moment forward as she would keep the ACU bats silent and would pitch her way to a complete game gem in the circle that saw her shutout the Wildcats and seal the 2-0 win for SFA in the series finale.

Madison Nguyen (2-3, R, SB) led the offensive charge for SFA as she extended her hitting streak to six games and today's multi-hit effort marked Nguyen's third game with multiple hits during her six-game hitting streak. Hope Lusk (1-3) drew the start at the hot corner for SFA in game two and came through on both defense and offense as she has now reached base safely in three of her last four games. Meanwhile, Ellie Vance (1-2, BB) continues to be a hitting machine for SFA as she extended her hitting streak to three games and has recorded a hit in an impressive 10 of her last 11 games. Amiah Galcatcher's (0-1, BB, RBI) RBI walk in the first proved to be the deciding factor in this one, while Alexis Telford (0-1, BB) joined Galcatcher and Vance in the walk department as she drew a free pass of her own in the sixth inning.

Brooke Gainous drew the start in the circle for SFA and pitched a gem of a game for SFA as she pitched seven full innings, allowing just six hits with all six hits being singles and not issuing a walk in a dominating performance in the circle. Gainous secured her fourth win of the season in the process as she has now allowed three or less runs in six of her last seven starts, and has allowed two or less runs in five of those six starts. Madison Nguyen and Mallory Webb formed a dynamic duo in the outfield as they each recorded four putouts each, while Mikaelah Burkland recorded a pair of putouts of her own to complete the superb outfield performance defensively in game two. Meanwhile, the SFA infield remained busy as well as the quartet of Hope Lusk, Chloe Reneau, Alexis Telford, and Ellie Vance combined for 10 putouts and four assists, while Emily Land led the team with five putouts from behind the dish.

The Lumberjacks will hit the road for their next series as they will travel to Utah for the second time this season, this time for a matchup with the Utah Valley Wolverines. The series will kickoff with a Friday, April 19th evening doubleheader before finishing up with a single game on Saturday, April 20th. The doubleheader has game one scheduled for 5:00 p.m. CST with game two starting approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game, while the game on Saturday has first pitch scheduled for 2:00 p.m. CST. You can watch all the action on ESPN+, as well as follow along on the SFA Softball social media accounts for all the updates or by keeping track with live stats provided on the SFA Athletics website.