NEW ORLEANS – Nothing has come easy in this 2015 baseball season for the ACU Wildcats. So it's fitting that a history-making win for head coach
Britt Bonneau would go right down to the wire.
The Wildcats rallied from a 6-2 deficit going to the seventh inning to take an 8-6 win over New Orleans, recording the 700th victory in Bonneau's 19 seasons as a head coach, all of which have come at ACU. The Wildcats scored five runs in the seventh and one more in the top of the ninth to pick up the come-from-behind win.
Bonneau is now 700-391-1 in his career with the Wildcats, and while Friday night's victory at Maestri Field isn't the most important of his tenure, it does put him in select company in NCAA baseball ranks. He is the 77th active coach in all of NCAA collegiate baseball (Divisions I, II and III) to reach 700 career victories.
"This wouldn't have happened if God hadn't put me at ACU," said Bonneau, who was doused by a Gatorade bath in the post-game celebration. "Cari (Bonneau's wife) and I have given everything we can to ACU because ACU took a chance on a 26-year-old immature kid when I became the head coach in 1997."
Like many of their games this season, the Wildcats had to battle back from an early deficit as starting pitcher
Drew Hanson lasted just two innings, giving up three runs and six hits before being lifted from the game. The relief quartet of
Joe Gawrieh,
Aaron Mason,
Brandon Lambright and
Nate Cole held the Privateers to eight hits and three runs over the final seven innings of the game to give the Wildcats' offense a chance.
ACU trailed 6-2 entering the seventh, but with one out and
Tyler Eager on first after a single,
Heath Beasley doubled to left field to drive in Eager to make it 6-3. After an out by
Marcelle Carter,
Russell Crippen reached on an infield single, driving in Beasley to make it 6-4.
Colton Hall then singled and then
Alex Copeland and
Kyle Carroll each walked, the latter of which drove in Crippen to make it 6-5.
Wildcat leadoff hitter
Aaron Draper then hit the first pitch he saw toward first baseman Preston Marsh, who booted the ball for UNO's third error of the night. The error allowed both Copeland and Hall to score to give the Wildcats a 7-6 lead, their first of the night.
Lambright then took the hill and pitched a 1-2-3 seventh before giving way to Cole, who pitched the final two innings without giving up a run. ACU got a run in the ninth when Carroll walked, went to second on a Draper single and scored on an RBI single to left field by
Jordan Forrester. That made it an 8-6 game, and Cole closed it out in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning for his first save of the season. The Wildcats' rally made a winner out of Mason, who picked up his first win of the year to improve to 1-7 on the year.
"The game didn't start out the way we thought it would," Bonneau said. "They jumped on us early and we had to go to our bullpen sooner than we wanted to tonight. But our hitters got us on the board, and then when we knocked their starter out of the game (in the fifth inning), we thought that if our bullpen could put up a few zeroes that we could get back into the game.
"Our relief guys battled and then we had a big seventh inning with the five runs to get the lead," he said. "Lambright came in and put up a zero, and then Cole closed the game with two great innings."
The win pushes the Wildcats to 11-31 on the season and 9-13 in the Southland Conference, while the Privateers fall to 14-31 and 3-19. The series will resume Saturday at 1 p.m. with Bonneau looking to get moving toward win No. 800.
"I am so proud to wear the Purple and White and work for such a great university," Bonneau said. "I look forward to going to work every day and coaching with (longtime associate head coach)
Brandon Stover and (first-year pitching coach)
Brad Flanders. I know that players win the games, and we've had a lot of great players – some of the best in the country – for many of my 19 seasons here. Now we've got to go out and win (Saturday)."
