Baseball | 4/25/2015 10:52:00 PM
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Box Score 2 NACOGOCHES -- Just when it looked like the ACU Wildcats were on the verge of a gut-punch of a doubleheader sweep at the hands of Stephen F. Austin on Saturday, starting pitcher
Thomas Altimont and the Wildcat offense rode to the rescue to salvage a split of the Southland Conference series.
The Lumberjacks rallied for seven runs in their final two at-bats in the first game to take a 7-6 win at Jaycees Field. But the Wildcats bounced back behind a 133-pitch, complete-game effort from Altimont to pull out a 6-2 win in the second game of the twinbill. Altimont was aided by an ACU offense that put up all six of its runs in the eighth inning.
The split leaves ACU at 10-30 overall on the season and 8-12 in the Southland Conference, while the Lumberjacks are 14-29 and 8-14. The series will wrap up with a 1 p.m. game Sunday with ACU head coach
Britt Bonneau looking for the 700th win of his 19-year career, all of which has played out at ACU.
Bonneau climbed to within one win of 700 career victories on the strength of Altimont's fifth quality start of the season and third complete-game effort in his 10 starts. Altimont improved to 2-7 overall, but 2-3 in the Southland, and he lowered his ERA in conference games to 2.01.
Here's a recap of each game from Saturday:
Game 1 (Stephen F. Austin 7, ACU 6) -- Behind a solid pitching effort from frshman righthander
Drew Hanson, the Wildcats were in control of this game until their thin bullpen came into play in the late innings.
Hanson threw six shutout innings and carried a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh before SFA's bats came alive. Kyle Thornell, Garrett McMullen and Dan O'Neill all reached to load the bases. That was all for Hanson, who gave way to
Nick Palacios, who then allowed an RBI single to Zach Valenzuela and then a two-run single to Tyler Boxwell. After a bunt single and strikeout, Palacios then gave way to
Ladgie Zotyka, who promptly walked in a run before getting the final out of the inning with a groundout.
With Bonneau limited in his bullpen options because
Kevin Sheets has been suspended this weekend and next weekend for a violation of team rules, he went to starter-turned-reliever
Aaron Mason to start the eighth inning. Mason, though, only lasted three batters before giving way to
Nate Cole to finish the eighth. Mason was tagged with two runs in the inning, but it was Cole who gave up the game-winning RBI single to Will Vest, a squeeze bunt that scored Trevor Podsednik to make it 7-6.
In the top of the ninth, ACU third baseman
Aaron Draper singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Taylor Waters, putting the tying run ins coring position. But
Tyler Eager flew out to left field and
Alex Copeland grounded out to first base to end the game.
ACU got a run in the first on an RBI single from Copeland and extended the lead to 4-0 with three unearned runs inthe fifth inning.
Kyle Carroll had an RBI doulbe, Waters drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Eager drove in an run with a single. ACU made it 5-0 in the seventh on a Waters RBI double.
Russell Crippen had ACU's other RBI with a sacrifice fly in the eighth to drive in pinch-runner
Chris Altimont to push ACU's lead to 6-4.
But the Wildcats were unable to hold on to the lead as they dropped the first game of the series.
Game 2 (ACU 6, Stephen F. Austin 2) -- Altimont was dominant as he put his team on his back and almost willed them to a win.
He threw 133 pitches in the complete-game effort, striking out 10 Lumberjacks and allowing just six hits; none after a fourth-inning two out single. In fact, in the final 4 1/3 innings of the game, he allowed just two baserunners as he put the clamps on SFA.
The Wildcat offense, meanwhile, was having trouble of its own against SFA starting pitcher Dillon Mangham. He allowed two hits through seven innings -- retiring 16 straight Wildcats from the end of the third through the seventh -- and carried a 2-0 lead to the eighth inning.
But that's where the Wildcats finally got to him.
Marcelle Carter led off with a double to left and came home to score when Crippen followed with an RBI dobule. After a strikeout,
Jordan Forrester reached on a bunt single before Carroll singled to drive in Crippen with the game-tying run. With Forrester at third, Draper dropped down a squeeze bunt to drive in the go-ahead run and reached first base as well.
Waters then struck out, but reached base when SFA first basman , O'Neill, dropped the throw down on a dropped third strike. Eager then followed with an RBI groundout to drive in Carroll to make it 4-2. Copeland wrapped up the scoring with a two-run single to plate Draper and Waters and make it a 6-2 ACU lead.
Altimont made it stand up, never letting the Lumberjacks back in the game. He retired the final eight men he faced, including retiring SFA in order in the eighth and ninth innings after ACU had grabbed the lead.
"Thomas picked up one of his best and toughest wins of the season (Saturday)," Bonneau said. "Our team had just lost a really tough game and we used three guys out of the bullpen, which left us short in the second game. We were going to stick with him for 100 pitches, but he was a bulldog and kept going out there throwing up zeroes.
"We had trouble getting on base, but he kept battling through those tough innings," Bonneau said. "We got back-to-back doubles to start the eighth and then we played some small ball and it went our way. We got a couple of big hits and before you knew it, we had a lead. And then Thomas went out put up a zero in the bottom of the eighth, which was huge. That was a great effort by our entire team after a tough loss. I'm very proud of the way we stayed with it and stayed in the game the way we did."
