ABILENE -- Less than 24 hours after
Heath Beasley provided the heroics for the ACU Wildcats in a walk-off win in the 12th inning,
Jordan Forrester stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth Friday evening with the chance to hand the Wildcats another dramatic win.
And Forrester delivered with an RBI single to left field to drive in
Colton Hall with the game-winning run, handing the Wildcats a dramatic 9-8 win over Incarnate Word at Crutcher Scott Field.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 15-35 overall and 13-16 in the Southland Conference, while the Cardinals fall to 19-31 and 10-19. The victory guarantees the Wildcats will finish no worse than ninth in the conference standings and gives them the chance to finish in the top eight in the league.
The Wildcats and Cardinals will finish up the series Saturday with a 1 p.m. game. The game will mark the final home appearance for seven ACU seniors, who will be recognized before the game. After Saturday's game, the Wildcats will travel to Arizona to take Arizona State on Tuesday (May 19), Arizona on Thursday and Friday (May 21 and May 22) and Hawaii (May 23 in Tucson, Ariz.).
For most of the first six innings, a comeback victory looked to be only a pipe dream for the Wildcats as UIW pitcher Garret Cooper kept ACU hitters off-balance and off the board. He gave up just five hits and one run through the first six innings, carrying an 8-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
But that's when the Wildcats' bats woke up as they put up four runs to at least get back into striking distance. The first six Wildcats to bat collected hits in the bottom of the seventh as ACU pulled to within 8-5.
Kyle Carroll had an RBI single,
Tyler Eager a two-run single and
Russell Crippen an RBI groundout to get ACU to within three runs.
Joe Gawrieh then took the mound for the Wildcats and shut down an Incarnate Word offense that had put up eight runs on 11 hits through the first seven innings. After allowing a walk to the first man he faced, he picked off the pinch-runner and then retired each of the final five men to step into the box against him.
That solid work allowed the Wildcats to stay in the game and then win it in the ninth. With one out in the ninth, Eager singled to left and then went to second on an error by UIW shortstop Austin Hoffman on a ball hit by Crippen. With runners at first and second, Beasley hit a ball to second baseman Blake Woosley, who flipped to Hoffman for what could have been the game-ending double play. Instead, Hoffman dropped the ball and the bases were suddenly loaded with one out.
With
Alex Copeland at the plate, a wild pitch from UIW closer Trevor Hardee scored Eager to make it 8-6 and move the runners up to second and third. Copeland then grounded out to the second baseman, driving in Crippen to make it an 8-7 game. On a 3-2 pitch,
Colton Hall hit a lazy fly ball to left field that could have been the game-ending play.
But leftfielder Matt Morris dropped the ball, allowing pinch-runner
Chris Altimont to score the game-tying run.
Taylor Waters was then hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second before Forrester dumped a 2-2 pitch into left field to drive in Hall from second base with the game-winning run.
Hall and Forrester each had three hits, while Eager and Draper each had two hits for the Wildcats. Gawrieh picked up the win to improve to 1-2 on the season.
