The Wildcats (23-9) comeback attempt came up short Tuesday night in a 7-5 loss against the 25th ranked Texas Christian University Horned Frogs (21-12).
In a game which included 11 different pitchers between the two teams and despite ACU grabbing more hits than TCU, the Wildcats fell just short in their late game rally.
TCU took the first game of the season 7-0 back in March when the two teams played in Fort Worth.
The Wildcats were looking to turn things around coming off of a series loss to Sam Houston State, their fist series loss of the season.
Junior right hander Blake Anderson would be on the mound for the Wildcats and would start the game off strong with a scoreless first. In the bottom of the first, after a single from junior outfielder Miller Ladusau, junior outfielder Logan Britt would hit an RBI triple off the wall to bring home Ladusau and give ACU an early 1-0 lead.
TCU would however tie it up in the second on a RBI groundout.
In the third, with two on and one out for the Frogs, Britt would save a three run homer by snagging a perfectly timed out on the wall. After the TCU baserunner would get caught leaving second early the wildcats would grab the double play and escape the inning having only given up one run.
The Horned Frogs would go on to score four more runs in the top of the fourth including three of the runs walked in. Although the Wildcats would slowly but surely creep back in the game.
The bottom of the fifth would start off with a single from junior infielder Bash Randle. In the next at-bat, junior infielder Crew Parke would knock in an RBI double, scoring Randle. After a single and stolen base from junior infielder Garrett Williams, Ladusau would grab his second hit of the night on an RBI single. With only one out and runners in scoring position with the heart of the batting order in Britt and senior outfielder Grayson Tatrow up to the plate, The Frogs would get the last two outs and escape the inning with now only a three-run lead.
In the sixth, Parke would grab another RBI, this time to score senior catcher Tanner Tweedt. Freshman outfielder Holden Rook would follow it up with a single of his own to bring in Parke and make it a one run game at 6-5 heading into the seventh.
After three strikeouts in the bottom of the seventh from the Wildcats, the Horned Frog’s Luke Boyers would hit a costly solo blast into right field to give TCU some more breathing room.
Rook would get a single in the eighth and make his way around to third but be left on base to end the inning.
Heading into the bottom of the ninth, the inning would start off good for the Wildcats with Ladusau gettin on from a hit by pitch. But three straight outs from the Wildcats would close out the game in a 7-5 loss.
The Wildcats will stay home this weekend when they take on conference opponent Grand Canyon University. The games will be at 6:05 p.m on Friday, 3:05 p.m. on Saturday and 1:05 p.m. on Sunday at Crutcher Scott Field with all games streaming live on ESPN+.
Quotes will be added following head coach Rick McCarty’s next press conference.
