ABILENE -- Abilene Christian baseball lost both ends of a weather-delayed doubleheader against Sam Houston State Saturday afternoon at Crutcher Scott Field. The Wildcats were edged 6-5 in game one and fell 8-2 in the night cap despite collecting 10 base hits.
The Wildcats (8-28, 6-11 Southland) and Bearkats (22-19, 13-7 Southland) will conclude their three-game series Sunday at 1 p.m.
Game One Recap - Sam Houston State 6, ACU 5Sam Houston got a two-out run in the top of the ninth and then Alex Bisacca retired the Wildcats without a run in the bottom of the inning as the Bearkats took the first game of the series and the doubleheader with a 6-5 win.
The loss dropped the Wildcats to 2-10 in one-run games this season as ACU dropped its third straight one-run game. The Wildcats are 3-16 in games decided by one or two runs this season as their hard luck in close games continues.
ACU got two runs in the bottom of the first to take a 2-1 lead and three more in the bottom of the third to take a 5-2 lead. But Sam Houston's bullpen put the clamps on ACU's offense the rest of the way as three relievers combined to throw six innings of two-hit shutout baseball.
That excellent bullpen work allowed Sam Houston to scratch back into the game against ACU starting pitcher
Garrett deMeyere, who lasted into the fifth inning and gave up five runs on nine hits. The Bearkats drew to within 5-3 in the fourth with a run on a two-out, RBI single by Colt Atwood, and then tied the game with two runs in the fifth. One run scored when Ryan Brinley grounded into a double play, and then Miles Manning singled with two outs to drive in Bryce Johnson to tie the game, 5-5.
Drew Hanson came on in relief of deMeyere and pitched effectively, giving up just one run on three hits, but that run came in the top of the ninth and turned out to be the game-winner. ACU, though, had a chance to make Hanson the winner when it got runners to second and third with one out in the bottom of the eighth against Bisacci. But the Bearkats' reliever got
Tyler Eager to strike out swinging and set down
Alex Copeland looking to end the threat.
In the top of the ninth against Hanson, Atwood led off with a walk and moved to second on a groundout by Hayden Simerly. After Hanson struck out Spence Rahm, he got ahead of Johnson 1-2 before the Bearkats' leftfielder -- who took away at least two runs earlier in the game with a pair of fine catches -- spoiled Hanson's bid to get out of the inning unscathed with a single to right field that drove in Atwood with the go-ahead run.
Marcelle Carter -- who had a two-run single in the first inning and scored a run in the third on
Aaron Draper's two-run single -- stepped into the box to lead off the bottom of the ninth, but after one pitch from Bisacci, the game was stopped for one hour, 44 minutes because of rain, lightning and hail.
When the game resumed at 6:50 p.m., Bisaccie needed just six pitches to end the game. He got Carter to ground out on the first pitch after the game resumed, struck out
Russell Crippen on three pitches and retired pinch-hitter
Colton Hall on two pitches as he grounded out to shortstop to end the game.
Game Two Recap - Sam Houston State 8, ACU 2Sam Houston State jumped out to leads of 3-0 and 6-0 and never looked back as starter Logan Boyd struck out nine and held the Wildcats hitless until Eager singled up the middle with two outs in the fourth.
The Wildcats later broke Boyd's bid for a shutout in the sixth as four bloop singles to the left side of the field produced one run, but they ended up leaving two aboard after
Russell Crippen grounded softly to third base for the force out. That would be the first of four straight innings in which ACU left two runner stranded on base - three of whom were in scoring position.
After the Wildcats trimmed Sam Houston's lead to 6-1, the Bearkats added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh off relievers
Brandon Lambright and
Landon Holifield.
Lambright waled two of the first three batters he faced with a strikeout mixed in and then allowed a run-scoring single through the left side by Jake McWilliam who finished game two 4-for-5 with a run and two RBI. Two batters later Holifield was called for a balk with the bases loaded while pitching to No. 9 batter Collin Yelich.
Pinch hitter
Jordan Forrester led off the Wildcats' eighth with a double and scored on
Taylor Fajardo's RBI single through the left side, but on the very next pitch Boyd got
Colton Hall to end the inning on a foul pop to his battery mate Yelich.
Boyd finished his outing with 115 pitches and turned the ninth over to Hayden Nix, who left runners at second and third base by getting Eager to end the game on a fly ball to center field.
Aaron Mason started for the Wildcats and struck out four through 5.0 innings of work. He also allowed six run (four earned) on 10 hits and two walks.
Austin Lambright pitched a scoreless ninth for ACU, punching out two of the five batters he faced.
