Wildcats take three from ASU
ACU increases lead over Kingsville to three games
ABILENE – Abilene Christian increased its lead in the Lone Star Conference South Division to three games over the weekend by going 3-1 against Angelo State in division series at Crutcher Scott Field.
ACU (35-12 overall) is now 10-2 in the LSC South Division and leads second-place Texas A&M-Kingsville (7-5 in the LSC South) by a full three games. The Javelinas lost three of four over the weekend at Tarleton State. ACU will be in Kingsville this week for a key four-game series at Nolan Ryan Field. All four games of the series will be broadcast on KSLI 1280 AM, and on the internet at www.tsrnsports.com.
Following the weekend series at Kingsville, the Wildcats will return home for a four-game set against Eastern New Mexico over the weekend of April 29-30. That series will wrap up the regular season, and without a post-season conference tournament, the Wildcats will have to wait until mid-May to find out if they earned a spot in the NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament. The first regional poll of the season will be released this week, and the top four teams in the final regional poll of the season will earn berths in the tournament.
The Wildcats won the first two games of their series against Angelo State on Friday by the scores of 9-2 and 4-2, and then won Saturday's first game, 14-2, before falling in the series finale, 5-4. Angelo State, in its first year of intercollegiate baseball, is now 6-6 in the LSC South Division and tied with Eastern New Mexico for third place in the division.
Senior third baseman Brenan Herrera was the offensive catalyst for the Wildcats, hitting .538 (7 for 13) with three doubles, one home run and four RBI. ACU hit better than .370 as a team on the weekend, while Wildcat pitchers limited the Rams – who entered hitting better than .330 as a team – to just .225 as a team.
Junior righthander Ben Brockman won the 4-2 game on Friday to run his record to 10-0, while sophomore righthander Ben Maynard won the first game of the series to improve his mark to 8-1. Brandon Moore won Saturday's 14-2 game to improve to 7-0 on the year.
Here's a brief recap of each game of the Angelo State series:
Game 1 (ACU 9, Angelo State 2) – The Wildcats blew open a close game with three runs in the fourth inning and five in the fifth inning to pull away for the win.
Maynard threw his fourth complete game of the season to improve to 8-1 on the season, and while allowing just two earned runs, lowered his ERA to 3.13 on the season. Ruben Rivera keyed the eight-run rally over the fourth and fifth innings with a two-run double in each inning.
Game 2 (ACU 4, Angelo State 2) – Brockman improved to 10-0 and lowered his team-best ERA to 2.49 in the ACU victory. Brockman went 6 1/3 innings, and gave way to Kade Simmons, who threw one pitch – a game-ending double-play ground ball from John Beal – who picked up his second save of the year. Brockman's 10th win pushes him to within one win of tying Mark Ferry (1996), Grant Gregg (2000) and Corey Tidwell (2002) for the most wins in a season in ACU baseball history.
ACU scored all the runs it would need when it scored three runs in the second inning. Chris Walsh had an RBI triple, J-Bob Thomas a sacrifice fly to drive in Walsh and C.J. Goularte a solo home run. Cody Cure added an RBI single in the fourth inning to make it a 4-1 game.
Game 3 (ACU 14, Angelo State 2) – The Rams actually led 2-1 going to the bottom of the fifth inning before the Wildcats scored four runs to make it a 5-2 game. ACU then added two runs in the sixth, five in the seventh and two in the eighth to put the game away.
Herrera and Cure had three hits apiece and Herrera drove in four runs, while Thomas and Cure each drove in a pair of runs. Moore went seven innings, giving up just three hits and two runs while striking out six Rams. Adam Jones and Jason Kennedy each pitched one inning to finish things up for the Wildcats.
Game 4 (Angelo State 5, ACU 4) – ACU starting pitcher Justin Whitlock had his second straight rough outing, giving up three runs in the first inning, including a two-run triple to Kyle Mandlebaum.
ACU cut the lead to 3-1 with a run in the bottom of the fourth, but the Rams answered with two more runs in the top of the fifth, both of which came in with two outs, and both of which were charged to Whitlock.
The Wildcats scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth – two coming in on wild pitches, and another scoring on an RBI double by Johnny Zepeda – but they went down in order in the bottom of the seventh to end the game.
