Box Score
ABILENE – Through the first two weekends, the ACU Wildcats have gotten production from up and down their lineup, from their bullpen and off their bench.
Another example of that came up in the bottom of the eighth inning Sunday afternoon with their game against New Jersey Tech tied at 5-5.
With two outs and
Taylor Waters on first, ACU head coach
Britt Bonneau sent pinch-hitter
Heath Beasley to the plate to try and keep the inning alive. Beasley did more than that as he drilled the first pitch he saw from Jake Yanez into the gap in left-centerfield to send Waters flying around the bases.
ACU third-base coach
Brandon Stover waved Waters to the plate and he slid in with the go-ahead run as the throw from left field sailed high.
Kevin Sheets – who picked up the win with four innings of relief work – pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning and the Wildcats finished off the weekend with a 6-5 win over the Highlanders in the final game of the Al Scott Memorial Classic at Crutcher Scott Field.
The Wildcats are now 5-1 in their inaugural season at the NCAA Division I level, but the competition level will increase over their next games. ACU will return to action this weekend (Friday-Sunday) at Crutcher Scott Field when it hosts another team in transition from the NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I level in the Antelopes of Grand Valley (Ariz.) University. ACU will then head to Norman, Okla., on March 4-5 for a two-game series the Oklahoma Sooners, the Wildcats' first games against a Big 12 opponent since a 19-9 loss at Texas Tech on April 20, 2004.
On Sunday, the Highlanders – who beat Central Arkansas, 7-5, in 10 innings earlier in the day – took a 3-1 lead over the Wildcats after scoring two runs in the top of the third and one more in the fourth off ACU starter
Austin Lambright. ACU, however, pushed two runs across in the bottom of the fifth inning on a pair of RBI groundouts by
Aaron Draper and
Tyler Eager.
New Jersey Tech, however, regained the lead in the top of the seventh on an RBI triple by Matt Weckerle and an RBI double by Mike Rampone, taking a 5-3 lead to the bottom of the inning. But the Wildcats answered once again as freshman
Colton Hall – making his first appearance of the season and hitting ninth – singled with one out and then went to second when leadoff man
Seth Spivey was hit by a pitch.
Draper then singled through the hole between third and shortstop into left field to drive in Hall to make it a 5-4 Tech lead. With one out,
Tyler Eager was safe at first on a potential inning-ending double play ground ball, and went to second when the relay throw from Rampone at shortstop got past Tom Bouck at first base. That throwing error allowed Spivey to score from second to tie the game at 5-5.
That set up Beasley's heroics in the bottom of the eighth and the down-in-order top of the ninth for Sheets.
