ACU's season comes to end with disappointing 4-2 loss
5/17/2009 7:30:00 AM | Baseball
WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The ACU Wildcats won five of seven games this season against Angelo State.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they picked the wrong time to lose to the Rams for only the second time this season.
The Rams overcame a myriad of late-inning mistakes and watched as the Wildcats failed to capitalize on numerous opportunities to win as they took a 4-2, 12-inning victory over ACU in an elimination game of the NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament at Crane Stadium.
The Rams (45-19) will advance to play Emporia State at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, while the Wildcats' season ends at 44-19. ACU's two-run loss marks the eighth straight year that its season has come to an end via a one or two-run loss. ASU has ended ACU's season in two of the last three campaigns.
The Wildcats have no one to blame but themselves for the fact that they aren't playing Sunday afternoon. Angelo State gave them several opportunities in the late innings with botched plays both offensively and defensively. The biggest thing the Wildcats will point to is that they left 14 runners on base and were only 3 for 19 with runners on base.
ACU left the bases loaded in the first and sixth innings, and left runners at second and third in the eighth and ninth innings with the game still tied 2-2. ACU was just 2 for 10 with runners at second and third, but neither one of the hits scored a run.
And the Wildcats will also think about two more errors that cost them two unearned runs, one in the first inning and another in the top of the 12th. ACU entered the tournament with just 58 errors in 60 games, but committed nine errors in three games and gave up 13 unearned runs.
After falling behind 1-0, the Wildcats grabbed a 2-1 lead for starting pitcher Cooper Page in the bottom of the fifth when Davis Page drew a two-out walk and scored on a long two-run home run by Jordan Schmitt. That lead stood up through the sixth and seventh innings as ACU pitchers Page and Kevin Justice combined to keep the Rams scoreless and ACU on top.
ACU head coach Britt Bonneau then brought in closer Brad Rutherford to start the eighth to try and close it out with a two-inning save. But Rutherford gave up a single to Austin Lasprilla to lead off the eighth, but quickly retired each of the next two batters. First baseman Chris Adamson, however, pulled a fastball into left field for an RBI single to plate Lasprilla and tie the game at 2-2.
The bottom of the eighth inning is the one that will surely haunt the Wildcats for some time.
Working against ASU starting pitcher Sam Janca (who would throw 168 pitches before leaving the game after the ninth inning), the Wildcats put runners at second and third with one out and a chance to take a lead into the top of the ninth.
Needing a deep fly ball to drive in the go-ahead run, the Wildcats instead saw pinch-hitter Corey Kelly strike out and Chris Hall fly out to right to end the threat.
In the bottom of the ninth, the first two Wildcats to face Janca were retired before Travis Latz took advantage of the first opportunity the Rams presented the Wildcats. Latz popped a ball hight into shallow rightt-centerfield that dropped after second baseman Jason Morriss didn't hear rightfielder Clay Puckett call him off the ball.
Willie Uechi then hit a hard grounder to Lasprilla at third for what should have been an inning-ending ground ball. But instead of throwing the ball across the diamond to get Uechi, he tried to tag Latz as he was running to third. But the tag missed and the Wildcats had runners at first and third with a chance to win the game. Senior Thomas Bumpass hit a hard ground ball to shortstop Thomas Kostelnik, but he was able to field the ball and throw Bumpass out to extend the game.
In the top of the 10th, Brian Rasberry led off with a single against Rutherford, but he was erased on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out doubleheader that also saw Lasprilla erased on a strikeout.
In the top of the 11th, the Rams made another crucial error. After the nation's leading home run hitter, Keith Towne, flew out for the fifth time in the game, Adamson reached on a single and went to third on a double by Trey Carter. Morriss was then intentionally walked to load the bases and set up the force at any base.
Travis Lee then popped out to Latz in shallow right field, and he looked up to find that Adamson was, for some reason, headed to the plate. Latz -- who was approximately 10 feet off the infield dirt -- fired a strike to Schmitt at the plate, who was waiting for Adamson. The ASU first baseman, however, finally heeded the screams of head coach Kevin Brooks to get back to the bag, but it was too late. Schmitt fired a strike to Page at third base, and he applied the inning-ending tag.
Despite Angelo State's numerous miscues, the Wildcats were unable to take advantage, mainly because of the effective pitching of Janca and reliefer Craig Blair. Blair allowed just one hit over the final three innings of the game to pick up the win and improve to 8-2.
ACU senior Preston Vancil relieved Rutherford to start the 12th, and he immediately struck out Puckett for the first out. But he walked Brian Rasberry, who went to third on a single to center by Lasprilla. The Rams tried to squeeze in a run on th enext play, but Kostelnik's bunt was right back to Vancil, who flipped to Schmitt at the plate as the Wildcats were able to retire Rasberry for the second out of the inning.
With two outs and a 2-2 count against him, Towne -- who was 0 for 5 before the 12th -- stuck his bat out and shot a single past Uechi into left field to drive in Lasprilla with the eventual game-winning run. Angleo would tack on another uneared run in the 12th to make it 4-2.
Uechi delevered a one-out single in the bottom of the 12th to give ACU hope, but Blair retired Bumpass and Cameron Watten on a pair of fly balls to end the game and the Wildcats' season.
