ABILENE -- For the second straight season, the ACU Wildcats got to celebrate a Lone Star Conference baseball championship on their home field.
And for the second straight season they did it at the expense of their rivals from Angelo State.
Will Calhoun gutted his way through seven innings on the mound and
Aaron Oliver once again ignited the offense as the Wildcats repeated as LSC champions with a 6-4 win Tuesday over the Rams at Crutcher Scott Field.
The win sends the 11th-ranked Wildcats (46-13) into next week's NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament with the league's automatic berth. The dates and site for the tournament will be announced Sunday, but the Wildcats will be ranked No. 2 in the region on Wednesday behind Central Missouri.
For five innings the Wildcats were silent offensively as ASU starting pitcher Corey Morehouse -- making just his third start of the season -- held the Wildcats to three hits and five baserunners.
Meanwhile he was the beneficiary of a three-run ASU third-inning outburst against Calhoun. Chris Adamson drove in a pair of runs with a single in the inning and Keith Towne followed with an RBI single to give the Rams a 3-0 lead.
For most of those first innings it appeared as though the teams were headed for a winner-take-all game on Wednesday afternoon.
But the ACU offense finally woke up in the bottom of the sixth, and, as usual it was Oliver who provided the spark.
Oliver led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and went to second when leftfielder Dylan Petrich bobbled the ball. Second baseman
Chris Hall then followed with a single past Zak Leonhardt at third to drive in Oliver to cut the lead to 3-1.
Calhoun then blooped a single to left-centerfield to give the Wildcats runners at first and second with no outs. ACU head coach
Britt Bonneau then made what turned out to be one of his best decisions of the season when he brought
Cameron Bankston in off the bench to pinch-hit for
Travis Latz.
Subbing for Latz to drop down a sacrifice bunt, Bankston instead bunted for a hit and placed it perfectly between the pitcher and third baseman for an infield hit to load the bases.
Willie Uechi then followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in Hall to make it 3-2 and Bret Bochsler drove in Calhoun with the game-tying run with a single to right. With one out and Bankston at third,
Cameron Watten flew out to right for a sacrifice fly that scored Bankston with the go-ahead run.
After all that work, though, it took Adamson just one pitch to tie it up as he drilled a two-out fastball over the wall in the left field to make it a 4-4 game. Towne then followed with a single and Clay Puckett walked as the Rams threatened to regain the lead.
It looked as if they would when Austin Lasprilla singled into right field and Towne rounded third and headed toward the plate. But Bankston -- now playing right field for Latz -- came up firing and drilled a strike to the plate where
Ian Tomkins waited for Towne, who was out by five feet, keeping the game tied.
In the bottom of the seventh with one out, Oliver again got things started when he was by a pitch from Craig Blair. After
Chris Hall's single put runners at first and second, Calhoun hit into what should have been an inning-ending double play.
But Hall -- making perhaps the baserunning play of the tournament -- took out ASU shortstop Scott Pollard with a hard slide at second and Calhoun reached on a fielder's choice as Oliver went to third. Three pitches later Oliver scored on a wild pitch by Blair that bounced out in front of the plate.
Blair came off the mound to field it and flipped it to Adamson, but Oliver -- charging down the line as he saw the ball on the ground -- scored with a headfirst slide to give the Wildcats the 5-4 lead. Then with Calhoun at second, Bankston delivered a clutch two-out single to left-centerfield to drive in Calhoun to make it 6-4.
The Wildcats then turned the game over to their closer,
Brad Rutherford, and he delivered yet again. He ran through the Rams in order in the eighth, but ran into trouble to start the ninth.
Travis Lites singled to lead off the inning and Petrich walked to bring Adamson to the plate as the tying run. But on a 1-1 pitch, Adamson bounced one back to Rutherford, who fired to
Steve Camillucci at third to get Lites on the force out. Towne then followed with a flyball out to
Clint Bowker in left field and Puckett ended it when he lined out to Willie Uechi at shortstop.
As soon as the final out was recorded the Wildcats dogpiled near the mound to celebrate their second straight title and fifth since 2000. ACU has now played in the LSC championship game 10 times since 1999 and is 32-15 in 12 tournament appearances in head coach
Britt Bonneau's 14 seasons.
