Bullpen Holds Steady In 5-2 Win Over East Central

ABILENE - The Abilene Christian baseball team earned a hard-fought split of its four-game series with East Central after coming back to beat the Tigers 5-2 on Sunday afternoon at Crutcher Scott Field.

The Wildcats have now won or split their first four weekend series in raising their season record to 10-5 , while ECU dropped to 10-8.

The game's climax came in the top of the seventh inning in which ECU placed its first two runners at second and third base with no outs and ACU clinging to a 3-2 lead. But reliever Josh Stone (2-1) got leadoff hitter Greg Hamrock swinging at a high fastball, and then battled with Josh Schmidt for more than 10 pitches before finally getting him to fly out to right.

Following that exhausting showdown, ACU head coach Britt Bonneau turned to his bullpen once again and brought in Brady Rodriguez, who got No. 3 hitter Ethan Gold to fly out to center.

The Tigers again threatened in the eighth with consecutive two-out singles, but Rodriguez came through with an inning-ending ground ball to short.

Then in the ninth, down 5-2 this time, ECU brought the tying run to the plate in the form of cleanup hitter Rick Hepworth, but Michael Curtis struck him out swinging to end the game and earn his second save.

In making his third start this year, ACU's Austin Palmer allowed just one run on five hits through 5.0 innings of work. He also issued a walk and struck out three. The lone run scored against him came in the third as Jeremy Stein - who led off the inning with a double - scored from third on a fly ball to left.

Palmer followed that inning with a 1-2-3 fourth, and left a runner stranded at third base in the fifth.

ACU grabbed a 2-1 lead on Palmer's behalf in the fifth thanks to two ECU throwing errors committed by its battery of pitcher Robert Buitrago (0-2) and catcher Chris Montgomery.

Duncan Blades led off with a single, and when Montgomery tried to catch him stealing second, the ball whizzed past both middle infielders and into shallow center. Now with Blades at third and left fielder Kevin Finklea at first due to a walk, catcher Emmett Niland dropped a squeeze bunt in front of Buitrago, which he tossed over the reach of Montgomery.

Blades easily scored and Finklea moved to third on the errant throw before coming home on Luke Mejia's RBI ground ball to short.

The Tigers, however, came back in the sixth to tie the score at 2-2 on a RBI triple from Joel Pirez - one of his three hits on the day. But even that deadlock did not last long as the Wildcats used a few small ball tactics to get Kyle Conwell home from first after Buitrago plunked him to begin the inning.

Rodge Macy bunted Conwell to second, and then Blades got him to third with a fly ball to the warning track in left. Chuck Durate followed with a RBI single to left that gave ACU the lead for good at 3-2.

Durate added another RBI in the eighth to finish the game 2 for 4 with two RBI. Blades went 2 for 3 with two runs and a RBI double.

The Wildcats continue their homestand next weekend when they play host to the ACU/Whitten Inn Classic, which will feature Lone Star Conference baseball teams from Eastern New Mexico, Cameron, and Tarleton State. Games take place Friday through Sunday, with 1 and 6 p.m. start times.

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Abilene Christian 5, East Central 2 (Feb 26, 2012 at Abilene, TX)
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