Baseball | 4/24/2016 8:08:00 PM
HUNTSVILLE – Of all of the crazy ways the ACU Wildcats have lost games the last few years, the way Sunday's extra-inning loss at Sam Houston State happened will likely be hard to top. Not that the Wildcats want to find out.
Sunday's series ender looked for a moment in the top of the ninth like it might go the Wildcats way until it didn't, and then Sam Houston State scored a run in the bottom of the 13
th to pull out a 2-1 win over a demoralized ACU club.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 13-24 overall and 5-13 in the Southland Conference, while the Bearkats improve to 25-16 and 17-4. ACU will be back on the field for five games this week: Tuesday at home against Texas Tech at 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday in Midland against the Red Raiders; and Friday-Sunday at home against Stephen F. Austin.
It might take until the weekend for the Wildcats to shake off the effects of Sunday's loss.
The Bearkats got a run off ACU starting pitcher
Kyle Carroll in the first inning, but they did nothing against the Wildcats' senior righthander over his final 7 1/3 innings of work. Carroll needed just 95 pitches to get through 8 1/3 innings of work before giving way to
Nick Palacios, who was equally effective in his 4 1/3 innings of work before being tagged with a hard-luck loss.
The Wildcats twice wasted doubles and runners in scoring position, once in the sixth on a double by
Mark Pearson and again in the seventh when
Russell Crippen led off the inning with a double.
Then in the ninth – with the Bearkats leading 1-0 – it appeared as if the Wildcats had finally broken through to take the lead. With one out,
Hunter Markwardt walked to bring up Crippen. He blasted a ball over the wall in left field, apparently giving the Wildcats a 2-1 lead.
However, Markwardt – thinking the ball might not go out – went back to the bag to tag up, trying to move up to second if the ball were to be caught. Meanwhile, Crippen was running with his head and didn't see Markwardt on the bag and passed him on the bases. Crippen was immediately ruled out and Markwardt was allowed to score on what was credited to be an RBI single by Crippen.
ACU had a runner at second in the 11
th and 12
th innings, but couldn't score either runner. Sam Houston finally broke through to win the game in the bottom of the 13
th when No. 9 hitter Andrew Fregia tripled with one out. After an intentional walk to leadoff hitter Bryce Johnson, Fregia came home with the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly by Lance Miles.
Pearson finished his day 3 for 5 at the plate for the Wildcats, while Crippen was 2 for 4 with one RBI.
