ABILENE --
Kyle Giusti collected three hits and drove in four runs Sunday afternoon as the ACU Wildcats closed out their four-game Lone Star Conference baseball series against Cameron with a 12-4 win at Crutcher Scott Field.
The Wildcat victory gave ACU three wins in the four-game series and helped the Wildcats remain in second place in the LSC at 25-16 overall and 13-7 in the LSC. First-place Tarleton State lost to Angelo State on Sunday, 9-5, so the Texans' lead on the second-place Wildcats is down to one game entering next weekend's four-game series between ACU and Tarleton State in Stephenville.
The Texans will enter that series at 14-6 and in first with the Wildcats in second at 13-7. Angelo State is third at 11-9 with Incarnate word, West Texas A&M and Texas A&M-Kingsville bunched in a group right behind the Rams.
The Wildcats and Texans will get their series started Friday with a single game at 3 p.m., followed by a 3 p.m. Saturday doubleheader and a single game Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Wildcats blew Sunday's game open with a five-run fourth inning against Cameron starter Cody Hudson.
Travis Schuetze got it started with a leadoff double, and he came around to score on a Kyle Yorkman single to give ACU a 2-0 lead.
After a groundout moved Yorkman to second,
Rodge Macy singled to put runners at the corners and
Ryan Luckie walked to load the bases.
Seth Spivey then hit bouncing ball over the glove of second baseman Kevin Lum to drive in a pair of runs and make it 4-0.
After a
Tyler Eager double, Giusti singled in a pair of runs to make it 6-0.
Cameron got on the board in the seventh with three runs of its own to make it 6-3 and make things interesting.
But ACU squashed any hopes of a Cameron comeback by scoring six runs in the bottom of the seventh.
With one out and runners at first and second,
Chuck Duarte singled to drive in Schuetze to make it a 7-3 game. A walk to
Rodge Macy loaded the bases before Luckie walked to drive in a run and make it 8-3.
Spivey followed with a sacrifice fly to left field to make it 9-3 before Eager singled to drive in a run to push the score to 10-3. Giusti capped the inning with an RBI single, driving in Eager for a 12-3 ACU lead.
Ty Taylor went six innings on the mound for ACU, scattering seven hits and giving up just two hits and no walks while striking out a pair of batters. He picked up the win to improve to 4-4.
Nick Palacios went 1 1/3 innings before
Brady Rodriguez finished up the final 1 2/3 innings.
