The Horned Frogs’ bats came alive against a young ACU team, scoring in every inning but two and topping the Wildcats, 14-4.
ACU made the trip to the metroplex to take on nationally ranked TCU, the first Power Five matchup of the season for the Wildcats. The 20th ranked Horned Frogs’ bats were hot on a cool evening at Lupton Stadium, scoring in every inning but the sixth and eighth.
The Wildcats went down quietly in the first inning, with two groundouts to first base and the third to the catcher. In the bottom of the first, TCU came out swinging, scoring two runs right out of the gate.
Leadoff man Porter Brown reached base and advanced to second on a throwing error by freshman shortstop Cameron Cromer to begin the inning. Porter would score on a double by shortstop Tommy Sacco, who would steal third the following at bat.
After a walk to first baseman Austin Henry, right fielder Gene Wood singled up the middle, putting TCU up by two.
TCU tacked on four runs in the second, three runs in the third, two runs in the fourth and another run in the fifth. By the top of the fifth, the Horned Frogs led 12-1, but the Wildcats would not go down quietly.
Sophomore catcher Mitchell Dickson led the inning off with a hit-by-pitch, giving the Wildcats only their second base runner of the night. Two batters later, senior second baseman Ryne Randle walked and was pinch run for by junior Seth Watts.
Freshman outfielder Hayden Clearman came up big with an RBI single up the middle, with Dickson scoring from second.
ACU found another groove in the top of the sixth inning, leading the inning off with a Cromer single and stolen base, followed by a Tommy Cruz walk. Junior outfielder Colton Eager followed with a RBI double to the right-centerfield gap, bringing in Cromer from second and allowing Cruz to advance to third.
Junior first baseman Hunter Gieser came up with a two RBI single of his own, narrowing the score to 12-4. ACU would follow Gieser’s at-bat with three strikeouts.
The Wildcats would only allow two more runs in the seventh inning, extending the Horned Frog lead to 14-4. For ACU, Tommy Cruz and Mitchell Dickson lead the team in batting average at .400, with a minimum of two plate appearances per game and have played 75% of games to this point. Freshman Cameron Cromer is third on the team in batting average at .318.
ACU will head to California over the weekend for a three-game series against UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos are off to a 3-1 start, following a 17-7 victory over California.
