WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- After one of the longest days and nights in ACU baseball history, the Wildcats are back in position for a trip to the NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament.
The Wildcats rallied from a 6-0 deficit to beat St. Mary's, 9-8, in a four-hour, 12-minute, 13-inning marathon Monday night and then led from the start to beat Incarnate Word, 9-4, in a game that ended at 3:15 a.m. Tuesday. Both of those wins at the NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament were elimination games, and they propelled the Wildcats into the championship round of the tournament Tuesday afternoon at Crane Stadium.
The Wildcats (49-14) will take on top-seeded Central Missouri at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the first championship game. An ACU win over the Mules would force the if-necessary game immediately following. ACU needs two wins to earn its first trip to the national tournament since 2003, while the Mules need just one win.
In the nightcap, Willie Uechi had four RBI on a two-out, two-run single in the first and a two-out, two-run double in the fifth as ACU pulled out to a 6-1 lead. That was enough for the pitching trio of
Cameron Aspaas, Will Calhoun and
Josh Crockett, which shut down the Cardinals' offense.
Aspaas -- who was brilliant in five innings of relief in the win over St. Mary's -- took the ball again and went two innings in a start against Incarnate Word. While he didn't earn the win, he pitched well enough to leave the game with a 3-1 lead. Calhoun picked it up from there and went six strong innings before leaving the game with the score 9-4 and the bases loaded in the top of the ninth.
Crockett came into the game and forced Steven Vidaurri to bounce into a double play on his first pitch of the game. A few pitches later he retired Matt Roohan on a fly ball to centerfielder
Aaron Oliver, and the Wildcats had survived a doubleheader marathon that lasted more than seven hours and ended in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
In the opener against St. Mary's, it didn't look at all as if the Wildcats would still be playing at 3 a.m. as the Rattlers jumped out to a 6-0 lead against starting pitcher
Zach Sneed.
But the Wildcats rallied to tie the game with five runs in the fourth and one in the sixth. After St. Mary's regained a 7-6 lead in the bottom of the sixth,
Travis Latz tied it with a two-out, solo home run to left-centerfield.
Ryan Luckie gave the Wildcats their first lead of the ninth in the top of the ninth with an RBI single, but
Brad Rutherford couldn't hold the lead as he gave up a first-pitch home run to Greg Herbst in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at 8-8. After
Jordan Hartley came in and gave up a single to Jonathan Cisneros, ACU head coach
Britt Bonneau summoned Aspaas from the bullpen and he delivered.
He pitched five innings of three-hit, scoreless relief and wasn't really threatened from the ninth through the 12th.
In the top of the 13th, Will Calhoun led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Bret Bochsler. After Willie Uechi struck out, Luckie drove in Calhoun with his second RBI single of the night, giving the Wildcats a 9-8 lead.
In the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Morrow singled with one out before Aspaas struck out Herbst. Esteban Reygoza then doubled to put runners at second and third with two outs as Jason Garcia -- who had a three-run home run in the third -- came to the plate. But Aspaas got him to pop out to Bochsler in foul territory to end the game and send the Wildcats to the game against the Cardinals.
