The Wildcat baseball team split its fourth Lone Star Conference series in a row against No. 20 West Texas A&M University over Easter weekend.
ACU won the first and final games of the series 10-7 and 14-4, respectively but lost the second and third match-ups 1-2 and 0-8.
The tie moves the ‘Cats record to 20-17 overall and 8-8 in the LSC. The Buffaloes are 24-10 (11-5).
Head coach Britt Bonneau was glad to see the Wildcats beat a top conference team.
“Any win you take away from the top seeded team is going to help you,” Bonneau said. “Right now we’re trying to get into a tournament we didn’t make last year.”
In game one, ACU scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 7-7 tie. Before that, the two teams exchanged leads seven times in 7 1/2 innings.
Infielder Duncan Blades led the eighth off with a walk then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Kevin Finklea drove him in on an 0-2 pitch for the go-ahead run.
“It’s always good to beat teams at their own game,” Blades said. “Their known as an offensively strong team and we outhit them.”
Clint Cooper gave up a lead-off single in the top of the ninth, but got out of the jam with a ground out, line out and fly out to end the game.
Outfielder Kyle Conwell went 3 for 5 with an RBI and Blades was 3 for 4 with two runs scored. Finklea recorded two hits and three RBI.
The win was credited to Cooper (5-2) who pitched three innings of three-hit, scoreless relief.
The Wildcat offense went to sleep on Friday in a doubleheader. The team managed only one run combined in both contests.
Game one of the day was a pitchers’ dual between Jordan Herrera (2-6) and ‘Buff starter Ryan Houston (3-2). Both players pitched a 7.0 inning complete game and combined for 11 strikeouts.
“With the exception of one pitch he (Herrera) was almost perfect,” Bonneau said. “That’s good to see since he’s had a rough year in the win/loss column.”
Chuck Duarte scored the ‘Cats lone run in the second on an error by the WTAMU catcher who was trying to throw Reed Watson out at first base.
The Wildcats put three runners in scoring position in the next 5.0 innings but could not touch the plate against the Buffalo defense.
West Texas A&M starter Billy Gonzalez (5-0) came two outs away from a perfect game and no-hitter in game two. He lost the bids in the bottom of the seventh when freshman Tyler Eager reached on a fielding error and a single by Michael Cristiani was booted as Eager was running to second.
Gonzalez did not let it affect him though, as he got Conwell to ground into a game-ending 5-4-3 double play.
“Gonzalez got us off-balance but we also didn’t take good approaches at the plate,” Blades said. “I think he fed off that.”
Josh Stone (4-3) suffered the loss. He fanned seven batters in 6.0 innings of work.
Abilene Christian forgot those two performances in a hurry. They 10-run-ruled the ‘Buffs in the finale on Saturday after the top of the seventh inning.
“We were strong mentally in that game,” Bonneau said.
Eager and Travis Schuetze each drove in three runs while Duarte whacked his third home run of the season to aid in the route.
Down 3-0 in the second, ACU began to score in bunches. The team had five in the second, two in the third and a whopping seven in the fourth.
“That was a do or die game and we were able to gather ourselves together as a team,” Blades said.
Duarte got the ‘Cats on the board in the second with his solo home run.
Aaron Lambrix nabbed the win to improve to 3-3. He pitched six innings, scattering 11 hits, three earned runs and one walk.
“We’ve still got a lot of baseball to play and we’ve got to keep our mind-set that every game left is a playoff game,” Bonneau said.
