Baseball | 3/31/2015 9:56:00 PM
Box Score DALLAS – Two big innings propelled the 13th-ranked Dallas Baptist Patriots to a 12-1 win over the ACU Wildcats in a non-conference baseball game Tuesday night at Horner Ballpark that was stopped after the top of the seventh inning by the run rule.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 6-19 on the season, while the Patriots improve to 23-3 by recording their fifth straight victory. ACU will return to Southland Conference play this weekend in Houston by taking on Houston Baptist in a three-game series (Thursday-Saturday). Next Monday (April 6), the Wildcats will be back home at Crutcher Scott Field to take on defending Big 12 champion and 2014 College World Series participant TCU.
The Patriots scored four runs in the first inning (three unearned) off ACU starting pitcher
Thomas Altimont, who was eventually tagged with the loss to fall to 1-5 on the season. After that inning, however, Altimont settled down and retired nine straight Patriots at one point before the bottom fell out for the Wildcats in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Leading 4-1, DBU scored seven runs in the seventh to take a commanding 11-1 lead. Four of the runs came against Altimont, whose final pitch of the night was launched over the left-centerfield wall for a three-run home run and 8-1 lead by Tagg Duce, who finished with five RBI. Last Tuesday night in ACU's 11-6 loss to Dallas Baptist, Duce hit a three-run home run in a five-run DBU fifth inning on his way to six RBI.
The Patriots added another run in the bottom of the sixth to take a 12-1 lead, and after the Wildcats went down without a run in the top of the seventh, the game ended on the 10-run rule.
Gavin Fritz went five innings and allowed just two hits and one unearned run to pick up his second straight win over the Wildcats and improve to 2-0. ACU's only three hits came from
Aaron Draper (leadoff double) and two singles by
Brayden Gomez.
