ABILENE -- There are heartbreaking losses, and then there's what happened to the ACU Wildcats in Sunday afternoon's series finale against Southeastern Louisiana.
The Wildcats -- trying to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Southland Conference's best team -- outplayed the Lions for most of the contest at Crutcher Scott Field, carrying a 7-3 lead into the top of the ninth.
But all of the good work that starting pitcher
Aaron Mason, his defense and the ACU offense did over 8 1/3 innings was laid to waste by a six-run top of the ninth inning on a grand slam by Taylor Schwaner and a tie-breaking, two-run single by Webb Bobo, giving the Lions a 9-7 victory and a series sweep of the Wildcats.
Mason pitched very well, going 6 2/3 innings and allowing just five hits and three runs before giving way to
Zach Kornely and
Joseph Goetze, who combined to throw 1 1/3 innings of one-hit baseball and hand the Wildcats a 7-3 lead through the top of the eighth.
ACU had a chance to tack on another run in the bottom of the eighth when
Alex Copeland reached on a leadoff walk and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by
Kyle Carroll. But
Mark Pearson lined out to pitcher Kade Granier, who stuck his glove out and caught what would have been an RBI single, and
Hunter Markwardt lined out to Schwaner at third base, whose diving catch toward the foul line took away an RBI extra-base hit.
Then came a top of the ninth to forget for the Wildcats.
The frame started innocently enough when reliever
Brandon Lambright bounced back from behind in the count to get Bobo to bounce out to Carroll at second base to start the inning. But then Lambright gave up q single to Julian Service and a double to Carson Crites, and his day was done, giving way to the normally reliable Nick Palacio.
But Palacios didn't have it Sunday, giving up a four-pitch walk to pinch-hitter Drew Avans to load the bases and then a grand slam to left field by Schwaner -- who entered Sunday's contest with just three RBI on the season -- tying the game at 7-7.
The Lions, however, weren't done.
Jacob Seward singled and stole second before Palacios got Brennan Breaud to strike out for the second out of the inning. The Wildcats then intentionally walked Jameson Fisher -- who for the second time in the three-game series finished one extra-base hit away from hitting for the cycle -- and both then moved up a base on a wild pitch to give the Lions runners at second and third with two outs. Palacios then walked Midyett to re-load the bases, and that brought ACU head coach
Britt Bonneau out of the dugout for the second time in the inning, and he brought
Nate Cole in to face Bobo.
The left-handed-hitting Bobo then pulled an 0-1 pitch from Cole into right field to score Seward and Fisher with the fifth and sixth runs of the inning to give the Lions a 9-7 lead. Cole finally put an end to the inning when he retired Service on a fly ball to right, but the damage had already been done.
Granier got the Wildcats quietly in order in the bottom of the ninth, and after
Braxton Wilks struck out swinging to end the game, the Lions charged out of the third-base dugoutdoes to celebrate their second come-from-behind win of the weekend and sweep of the Wildcats.
ACU played well until the ninth and had a commanding 7-2 lead after five innings, thanks to a four-run fourth and a three-run fifth. Wilks reached on an error in the fourth that drove in
Hunter Hays from third with the tying run, and then
David Ruot, Copeland and Pearson all had RBI singles in the inning to give the Wildcats a 4-1 lead.
After the Lions cut the lead to 4-2 in the top of the fifth, the Wildcats scored three more times in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-2 lead. Wilks drove in two with a double, and Copeland drove in another with a double to left to give ACU what looked like a comfortable margin.
But the Lions wouldn't die, and they ended up walking out of Crutcher Scott Field with a sweep and improving their record to 14-6 overall and 6-0 in the league.
ACU, meanwhile, falls to 9-10 and 2-4 and must re-group pretty quickly before facing No. 7 TCU at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth.
