ABILENE—Britney Benedict joined elite company Tuesday becoming just the fifth Abilene Christian player in school history to throw a no-hitter. The sophomore right hander held UT-Permian Basin hitless in an 8-0 run-rule win in five innings at Poly Wells Field while the No. 15-ranked Wildcats went on to take a doubleheader from the Lady Falcons with an 8-2 win in game two.

Benedict walked two and allowed just one runner to reach second base, and she struck out one to move to 4-4 overall on the season. The struggling Falcons managed just four hits combined in both losses to ACU Tuesday and are hitting below .250 as a team on the season.

Benedict joined Kim McDonald, Rebecca Eldridge, Amanda Cobb and Shelby Owen as other Wildcat players to toss no-hitters. McDonald, the team’s graduate assistant coach in 2009, tossed a five-inning perfect game against Delta State in San Antonio Feb. 2, 2008. Cobb and Eldridge each threw their gems in 1999 and 2000 respectively, and Owen threw four no-hitters between the 1997 and 1998 seasons including two in one day against UTPB in March of 1997.

So Benedict’s no-hitter was the eighth in school history and the third no-hitter pitched by a Wildcat pitcher against UTPB.

Benedict set down the first eight UTPB hitters in game one before walking Erica Hollingsworth in the top of the third for the Lady Falcons’ first base runner.

After Hollingsworth’s walk, Benedict shut down the next five hitters before walking Hollie Hutson in the fifth with one out. Amber Eaton grounded out to third base to advance Hutson to second, but Jennifer Oso grounded out to second base to end the top half of the fifth.

Meanwhile, offensively ACU had built a 5-0 lead in its first four at bats thanks to a couple of solo home runs from Melissa Rodriguez and RBI singles from Nancy Sawyers, Emily Farrier and Jessica Shiery.

Then in the bottom half of the fifth, ACU ended the game early when Shelby McElvain hit a two-run homer to extend the lead to 7-0 and then Katie Cornelison hit a bases-loaded single to score Brooke Whittlesey to end the game.

In game two, the Wildcats used a good outing from sophomore starter Kim White from the pitcher’s circle and a balanced scoring attack with six ACU players driving in runs.

White tossed four innings of one-hit softball before reliever Leticia Cisneros came into relieve. The Lady Falcons got on the board early with a run in the top of the first when Krista Chesworth singled home Kourtney Ford.

However, the Wildcats countered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning off second-game starter Hollingsworth. Brooke Whittlesey and Jackie Gentile each singled to start off the inning, then Shiery drove home Whittlesey with a single. Katie Cornelison grounded out to short, but it scored Gentile to give ACU a 2-1 lead. Then Rodriguez stayed hot with a double to left centerfield scoring Shiery.

From there, ACU scored two runs in the third thanks to a two-run single from Emily Farrier extending the Wildcat lead to 5-1. Then in the sixth, the Wildcats narrowly missed ending the game early. Needing an eight run advantage to get the run-rule victory, ACU put up three runs with Genevie Ramirez getting an RBI single, and later she scored on an error. Then, Brianna Fowlkes singled home a run to make the score 8-1, but that would be all the sixth-run damage the ACU offense would provide.

UTPB got a rally stirring in the seventh loading the bases on ACU reliever Cisneros. However, after facing four batters and surrendering a run, White re-entered to shut down the Lady Falcons with the bases loaded in order. White moved to 5-1 on the season.

ACU moved to 36-11 on the season with the pair of in-region wins while UTPB fell to 11-34 on the season.

***

NOTE: Britney Benedict is a 2007 graduate of Forney High School and is now a sophomore at ACU. She played 4 seasons of softball in high school and in her senior year she earned All-State honors. Benedict was a 4-time All-District selection and made All-Area and All-Region in her senior year.

Source: ACU web site - softball story dated 4/15/09 and biographical data.