Wildcats finish Southland play with 5-3 loss at Incarnate Word

Saturday, May 17

San Antonio, TX

1 p.m.

Abilene Christian

17-33, 6-18

Incarnate Word

18-32, 9-15

Abilene Christian

Incarnate Word

Photo by: Shawn Best

Wildcats finish Southland play with 5-3 loss at Incarnate Word

5/18/2014 12:27:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Lance Fleming, SID

SAN ANTONIO -- The ACU Wildcats closed out the Southland Conference portion of their 2014 season Saturday with a 5-3 loss to Incarnate Word at Sullivan Field.

The loss drops the Wildcats to 17-33 overall and 6-18 in league play, while the Cardinals finish their season at 18-32 and 9-15. ACU has four games left in its inaugural NCAA Division I season: Tuesday at Arizona State and three games at Arizona (May 23-25).

The loss for the Wildcats was their fifth straight as they were swept by Incarnate Word, despite only being outscored 18-12 in the three-game set.

Incarnate Word led the entire way Saturday, scoring once in the second inning and two more times in the third off ACU starting pitcher Russell Crippen. The freshman righthander went just 2 1/3 innings and gave up four hits and three runs (two earned) and was tagged with the loss to fall to 0-1.

After falling behind 4-0, ACU got a run back in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Giusti, who played this weekend for the first time since March 25 after suffering a groin injury.

ACU scored twice more in the seventh on a two-run double to left-centerfield by freshman catcher Connor Messman to cut the UIW lead to 5-3. But that was as close as the Wildcats would get.