ABILENE – A dominating
Thomas Altimont pitching performance Sunday afternoon finished off a near-perfect weekend for the ACU Wildcats, who won their first Southland Conference series of the season by taking two games from the McNeese State Cowboys at Crutcher Scott Field.
After the Wildcats dropped the completion of Saturday's game, 5-4, Altimont took the hill and never let the Cowboys breathe as he tossed a five-hit, compete-game shutout to lead the Wildcats to a 3-0 win and the series victory. Saturday's game was stopped by rain in the bottom of the eighth with ACU trailing 5-3 and was re-started Sunday at noon.
The two wins over the previously league-leading Cowboys make ACU 1-2 in Southland Conference series this season and pushes its record to 5-15 overall and 4-5 in the league. The Wildcats will host red-hot Dallas Baptist at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Crutcher Scott Field.
The Patriots will enter the game at 18-3 on the season (2-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference) and ranked No. 18 in NCAA Division I baseball by Baseball America and No. 24 in the country by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (NCBWA). The Patriots also received votes in the latest
USA Today coaches' poll.
But the Wildcats will carry the momentum of the weekend series over McNeese State into the game against DBU with both of those wins coming via shutouts from a pitching staff that lowered its cumulative ERA to 4.24. McNeese State scored just five runs in the series and only scored in only two of 27 innings (four runs in the fifth and one run in the sixth on Saturday).
Here's a recap of both of the games that were completed Sunday:
Game 2 (McNeese State 5, ACU 4) – This game was stopped at 3:26 p.m. Saturday because of heavy rain that enveloped Abilene, making the field unplayable. ACU freshman shortstop
Brayden Gomez was standing in the left-handed batter's box with a 3-2 count, two outs and the tying runs on second and third when the umpires stopped the game because of the rain.
When he stepped back into the box Sunday at noon, the skies had cleared and the sun was starting to peak out as he readied himself to face McNeese State pitcher Colin Kober. It only took Kober one pitch to end the drama as he got Gomez to fly out to centerfield to end the inning, a mere 21 hours after it started.
The Cowboys didn't get anything in the ninth against
Nate Cole, but the Wildcats immediately went after Kober in the bottom half of the inning, getting back-to-back singles from
Kyle Carroll and
Aaron Draper to open the inning. After
Cody Huson struck out,
Tyler Eager hit a roller to first baseman Connor Crane, who touched the bag for the second out of the inning and threw down to second to try and get Draper for the final out.
But Draper slid to the back of the bag, avoiding the tag of shortstop Connor Lloyd, allowing Carroll to score to make it 5-4 and keeping the inning alive. But Kober got
Alex Copeland to strike out to preserve the 5-4 Cowboys' win, tying the series at 1-1.
The Cowboys got four runs in the fifth inning (Saturday) against ACU starting pitcher
Aaron Mason with two runs coming in on Crane's two-run single to centerfield. But the crushing blow for the Wildcats was a solo home run to left-centerfield by Matt Gallier that eventually proved to be the difference in the game.
Game 3 (ACU 3, McNeese State 0) – Altimont was nothing short of dominant as he allowed just five hits and one walk while striking out five Cowboys and facing just five batters over the minimum on his way to the first complete-game shutout for the Wildcats this season and the first since
Brady Rodriguez twirled a three-hit, complete-game shutout at Oral Roberts on May 9, 2014, in Tulsa, Okla.
The Wildcats' last complete-game shutout at home was April 19, 2014, by
Garrett deMeyere, who threw a four-hitter against Stephen F. Austin, and who also threw 7 1/3 shutout innings Friday in ACU's 5-0 series-opening win against McNeese State.
Altimont only allowed the leadoff batter to reach base once in nine innings, only allowed two runner to advance to third base, retired eight straight early in the game, and worked around a two-out double and a walk in the top of the ninth to pick up his first win as a Wildcat. In the process, he lowered his ERA from 6.00 to 4.36 and improved to 1-4.
It was his second straight solid start at home; he went nine innings and gave up just seven hits and two runs (one earned) in a 2-0 loss to Nicholls back on March 7.
"Thomas is a bulldog, and he's not afraid of anyone we face," ACU head coach
Britt Bonneau said of his senior right-hander, who transferred to ACU from Arkansas where he faced some of the best teams in the nation in the SEC. "We got some runs for him early and he just turned it up a notch from there."
For just the third time this season, the Wildcats took a lead after the first inning when Draper reached on a leadoff single and scored on a two-out RBI single by Copeland. The Wildcats tacked on two more runs in the second inning on a two-out RBI bloop double by
Colton Hall (driving in Gomez) and an RBI single by Draper to plate Hall to make it 3-0.
That's all Altimont would need as he dominated the Cowboys through the middle innings. After giving up a leadoff single in the fifth, he coaxed a double-play groundout and then got a pop out to get out of the inning. He hit a batter with two outs in the sixth, but got out of it by getting a ground ball back to the mound, he set down the Cowboys in order in the eighth to set up the ninth-inning drama.
He easily retired the first two hitters, but then gave up a long double off the left-centerfield wall to Crane and a walk to pinch-hitter Lucas Quary. A wild pitch moved both runners up with Lloyd at the plate. After a brief discussion with pitching coach
Brad Flanders, Altimont went to work on Lloyd, eventually falling behind 3-1 before getting a foul ball to run the count full. Lloyd then hit a sharp ground ball to Gomez at short, who fielded and fired across to first baseman
Tyler Eager, who had to dig it out and stretch out to make the catch for the final out.
Aside from only allowing one leadoff hitter to reach base in nine innings, Altimont set the Cowboys down in order int he third, fourth, sixth and eighth innings. He threw 110 pitches in the game with 69 going for strikes as he constantly worked ahead of hitters.
"It was great to get an early lead and let my defense work," Altimont said "Brayden at shortstop and Huson at second base made some really nice plays behind me, and Eager made a great pick on the last out. I was able to throw strikes and get ahead in a lot of counts, and that was a big key."
