The Wildcats (19-6) took down the Baylor Bears (9-16) Tuesday night in Waco in an extra inning thriller.
The Wildcats, coming off of a series win against Sacramento State, were looking to grab a big win against a power five opponent and continue to build off of their historic season so far.
The Bears, who have struggled so far this season, were looking to turn things around after a series sweep against the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
The Bears won the matchup last season in Abilene 6-4, and despite their record had won their last three midweek matchups heading into Tuesday.
Junior right hander Blake Anderson would be on the mound for the Wildcats and would throw for three scoreless innings and allowing only two hits and getting three strikeouts.
The pitching for both teams would be the story early in the game as it wouldn’t be until the fourth when we would start to see some action.
In the fourth, ACU would make a bit of noise after junior infielder Garrett Williams would start off the inning by getting hit followed by junior outfielder Logan Britt taking a walk to put two on and one out. However the Wildcats would fall just short from scoring the first run of the game after senior catcher Tanner Tweedt would go down on strikes to keep the game locked at zero.
Junior infielder Bash Randle would start out the fifth with a single to center followed by a walk from junior outfielder Jake Skaggs. With two on and no outs, junior infielder Crewe Parke would make contact on a SAC bunt to advance the runners. With Randle on third and Skaggs on second, sophomore infielder Riley Bender would hit into a fielder’s choice, but a throwing error from the third baseman would allow Randle to find his way home and give ACU a 1-0 lead.
After junior outfielder Miller Ladusau would be called out at the plate on a controversial call to end the top half of the sixth inning, head Coach Rick McCarty would head out to home plate to discuss the call with home plate umpire Shaylor Smith. McCarty would be ejected in the middle of the inning after arguing with Smith.
The Bears would flirt with getting on the board in the sixth but ultimately would stay at zero after senior left-hander Adam Stephenson, who came into the game in the fourth, would get out of the jam.
ACU would add to their lead in the top half of the seventh. After back to back singles from Tweedt and Randle and a wild pitch to get Tweedt to third, Skaggs would ground out into a double play but would allow Tweedt to get home putting the Wildcats up 2-0
Junior left-hander Max Huffling would come into the game for ACU in the eight getting three straight outs to send the Wildcats into the last inning up two. After getting the first two outs, and being one strike away from putting the game away, Huffling would walk the batter leading to Baylor’s Walker Polk hitting a game tying home run to tie the game at two and send us to extras.
After a stalled top half of the tenth for the Wildcats, Baylor would put the pressure on junior right hander Drake Boggan with the winning run 90 feet away. Boggan would get out of the jam however and give the offense another shot.
The eleventh would start with Ladusau needing one pitch to knock down a double into left field. Britt would take a walk to get on bringing up senior outfielder Grayson Tatrow. Tatrow, who leads the team in RBIs, would smash a home run into left field to give the Wildcats a 5-2 lead. It would be Tatrow’s third home run in three games.
Redshirt senior right-hander Zach Smith would come into the game and get the save in the eleventh to secure the win for the Wildcats.
This gives ACU their second win against a power five team this season and their fourth three-game winning streak of the season.
The Wildcats are back at home this weekend when they face Texas A&M-Corpus Cristi at 6:05 p.m on Friday, Nebraska at 4:05 p.m. on Saturday, and TAMU-CC again at 1:05 p.m. on Sunday. All games will be streaming on WAC International.
Quotes will be added following the next press conference with head coach Rick McCarty.
