HOUSTON – ACU senior first baseman Tyler Eager homered and tied a career best with four runs batted in Thursday afternoon to lead the Wildcats to a 9-2 win over Houston Baptist in the first game of a three-game Southland Conference baseball series at Husky Field.
The win pushes ACU to 7-19 overall, but, more importantly, to 5-5 and into seventh place in the Southland Conference. The Huskies, meanwhile, fall to 15-13 overall and 6-4. The teams will be back in action Friday at 2 p.m. before wrapping up the series Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Wildcats scored in the first inning when
Aaron Draper led off with a double, went to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a sacrifice fly by Eager. That hit and run were the only ones for the Wildcats until the sixth inning when the Wildcats scored two runs on a
Kyle Carroll single and Eager's two-run home run to right field.
Eager is near the top 10 in several all-time hitting categories, but it was only the second home run of his career. His first came on Feb. 11, 2012, in the 25th at-bat of Eager's career. Since that home run against Colorado Christian in the seventh game of his freshman season, Eager has gone 781 at-bats without a home run before the shot off HBU starting pitcher Taylor Wright. His four RBI are the most he's had in a game since he had four against Arkansas Tech on Feb. 5, 2012, when he was a freshman.
That home run gave ACU a 3-1 lead before the Huskies answered with a run in the bottom of the sixth to cut ACU's lead to 3-2. But
Ladgie Zotyka got a bases-loaded groundout to end the inning and keep the Wildcats in the lead.
That was a theme throughout the game as HBU left 17 runners on base and left the bases loaded in the second, third, fourth and sixth. ACU's first three pitchers –
Garrett deMeyere,
Nick Palacios and Zotyka – uncharacteristically walked 10 opposing batters, but only one of those scored a run. ACU's defense helped out with two double plays and the team's fourth game without an error this season.
Leading 3-2 going to the seventh, ACU put together three hits and took advantage of one HBU error to score two more runs and get some cushion going into the late innings.
Marcelle Carter led off the inning with a single, went to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a single to left field by
Russell Crippen.
After a
Mason Spracklen single helped move Crippen to third with one out,
Colton Hall dropped down a perfect squeeze bunt to drive in Crippen and give the Wildcats a 5-2 lead. In the bottom of the eighth, Zotyka worked around two hits by the Huskies, taking advantage of a double play turned by
Brayden Gomez (shortstop), Crippen (second base) and Eager to get out of the inning unscathed.
In the top of the ninth, Crippen singled with one out and came home on a two-run home run to left field by
Mason Spracklen. Eager drove in another run with a sacrifice fly to make it 8-2, and Draper later scored on an infield single by
Jeff Clarke.
