Wildcats improve to 5-0

Saturday, February 13

Abilene

6:05 pm

Abilene Christian

Central Oklahoma

2/13/2010 10:51:37 PM | Baseball

ABILENE -- The 12th-ranked ACU Wildcats scored 12 unanswered runs Saturday night as they rallied from a 6-3 deficit to take a 15-6 win over Central Oklahoma in Lone Star Conference baseball action at Crutcher Scott Field.

The Wildcats are now 5-0 overall to start the season and 1-0 in the LSC, while the Bronchos are 0-1 and 0-1. ACU and Central Oklahoma will play a single game Sunday at 2:05 p.m. and will complete the four-game set with a 1:05 p.m. doubleheader Monday.

ACU scored the first three runs of the game only to see the Bronchos score six straight runs against Wildcat starting pitcher Will Calhoun to take a 6-3 lead.

But the Wildcats tied the scored at 6-6 with three runs in the fourth then took the lead with two runs in the fifth. ACU tacked on five more runs in the sixth and capped the game with two runs in the seventh.

Aaron Oliver had an RBI single and Chris Hall an RBI sacrifice fly in the fifth to help ACU take an 8-6 lead. The Wildcats then put the game away with a five-run outburst in the sixth.

Travis Latz started the inning by blasting a leadoff home run over the wall in left field (his secone home run of the season) to make it 9-6. Ian Tomkins had an RBI single in front of a bases-clearing double by Hall, who had five RBI in the game.

In the seventh, the Wildcats scored a run on a balk and then Tomkins had a sacrifice fly RBI to make it 15-6.

While Hall (3 for 5 with five RBI) and the rest of ACU's offense were a big part of the win, the biggest part for the Wildcats was the work of the three pitchers out of the bullpen.

Calhoun didn't have his best stuff and gave up six runs on 11 hits in three innings. But Chay Lytle, Josh Crockett and Jordan Hartley combined to pitch six shutout innings to close it out, giving up just two hits and three walks in that span.

Lytle -- who gave up just one hit in three innings -- picked up the win for the Wildcats to improve to 2-0 on the season.