ABILENE – Northeastern University took advantage of a pair of ACU fielding errors in the top of the second inning Friday afternoon to score three runs, and that was all the Huskies needed in a 3-2 win over the Wildcats in the first game of a four-game non-conference set at Crutcher Scott Field.
The loss is the second straight for the Wildcats, who fall to 4-2 on the season after back-to-back losses to Oklahoma and Northeastern. The Huskies, meanwhile, improve to 3-2 on the season with the victory. The series will resume Saturday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader and will conclude Sunday with a single game starting at noon.
Northeastern third baseman Ryan Solomon led off the second inning with a hit by pitch from ACU starting pitcher
Kyle Carroll, who took the loss to fall to 1-1. After Jake Farrell walked, Max Burt reached on an error to load the bases when the throw from ACU third baseman
Aaron Draper pulled first baseman
David Ruot off the bag.
Carroll then coaxed a fly ball out to right field from Josh Treff before Mason Koppens sent a sharp ground ball through Draper at third for the Wildcats' second error of the inning, scoring both Solomon and Farrell to make it 2-0. With Burt at third base after the error, Charlie McConnell punched a fly ball into left field to drive in McConnell on sacrifice fly, pushing the Huskies' lead to 3-0. Carroll got out of the rest of the inning unscathed, but the Wildcats trailed 3-0.
ACU got a run back in the bottom half of the second inning when
Russell Crippen and
Heath Beasley opened the inning with back-to-back singles in front of a Ruot RBI single to center field to cut the NU lead to 3-1. But that's when NU starting pitcher Aaron Civale got tough, coaxing a pair of ground balls out of the next two Wildcats, including an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play ball from
Alex Copeland.
The middle innings were marked by solid efforts from both Civale and Carroll as pitching dominated. Both worked in and out of trouble, keeping each offense off the board until the bottom of the sixth when ACU posted another run. With one out, Draper doubled off the wall in left field, moved to third on a groundout by
Mark Pearson and scored on an RBI single to left by
Braxton Wilks.
Civale got tough once again, striking out Crippen to end the inning and then setting the Wildcats down in order in the seventh and eighth innings. Mike Fitzgerald took over on the mound in then ninth and worked around a one-out walk to finish up the 3-2 win and pick up his second save of the season.
Carroll was solid in his second start of the season, throwing six innings of four-hit baseball, striking out seven and not allowing an earned run. Civale was a little bit better, though, as he scattered seven hits and struck out six Wildcats in eight solid innings.
