Buffs hammer ACU in key contest

Friday, April 15

Canyon, TX

7 pm

Abilene Christian

West Texas A&M

Photo by: Jeremy Enlow

4/15/2011 11:02:57 PM | Baseball

CANYON – West Texas A&M scored six runs in the first inning Friday night and never looked back as the Buffs took the first game of a critical three-game Lone Star Conference baseball series, 11-1, at Wilder Park.

The win pushes the Buffaloes to 28-13 overall and 15-10 in the LSC, while the Wildcats fall to 21-17 and 14-11. The series will conclude Saturday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader.

The 17 losses are the most regular-season losses for the slumping Wildcats since 2004 when they lost 23 games during the regular season and barely qualified for the conference tournament. The Wildcats' hopes for reaching the conference tournament in 2011 were dealt a serious blow by Friday's loss.

The Wildcats are in seventh place with eight conference games left on the schedule. ACU hasn't missed the conference tournament since 1997 and since 1999 the Wildcats have played in the conference tournament championship game in every year except one (2004).

But as has been their pattern throughout the 2011 season, the Wildcats gave up a big inning and were unable to get enough offense to get back into the game.

The Buffs' six-run first inning came against starter Brady Rodriguez, who lasted just two innings and gave up eight runs on nine hits and fell to 2-3 with the loss. The big inning was highlighted by a two-run single from Jordan Easom.

Jess Cooper hit a two-run home run to left-centerfield in the second to make it 8-0 and then hit a solo shot in bottom of the fourth to make it 9-0. Will Miller capped the Buffs' scoring in the fifth with a two-run home run.

The Wildcats' only run came in the top of the sixth when Bryce Gerhardt singled in Abe Williams.