Huskies edge Wildcats, 3-2, in series-opener

Friday, April 8

Abilene

6 p.m.

Abilene Christian

10-18, 2-8

Houston Baptist

15-15, 6-4

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Houston Baptist	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	8	0
Abilene Christian	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	9	2

Photo by: Tim Nelson

4/8/2016 10:21:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

ABILENE – Close, but no cigar is quickly becoming the theme of the 2016 ACU baseball team.

Once again Friday night, the ACU Wildcats came close but couldn't put one in the victory column as Houston Baptist took advantage of two first-inning errors to score two runs en route to a 3-2 win over the Wildcats in a Southland Conference contest at Crutcher Scott Field.

The loss is the fourth straight for the Wildcats, who are now 10-18 overall and 2-8 in league play. Houston Baptist, meanwhile, is 15-14 overall and 6-4 in the conference after handing the Wildcats their fifth one-run loss of the season. The second game of the three-game series will be played Saturday at 6 p.m., a change from the original start time of 2 p.m. because of the rain in the forecast for early Saturday afternoon.

More than half of the Wildcats' 28 games this season have been decided by one or two runs, and Friday's loss drops ACU to 7-9 in such games, including 5-5 in one-run games. ACU has lost four of its last five one-run games with all four of those losses coming in Southland Conference play.

The Huskies jumped on ACU early, thanks in large part to a pair of Wildcat errors. Leadoff man Louie Payetta reached on an error by first baseman Russell Crippen and then went to third on a single to right by Greg Espinoza.

HBU then attempted a double-steal to try and plate an early run, but ACU second baseman Aaron Draper cut the throw to second off and threw to the plate and got Payetta in a rundown. Catcher Alex Copeland ran Payetta back to third, but his flip to third baseman Austin Call was dropped, allowing Payetta to score to make it 1-0.

With Espinoza on second and one out, Austin Saenz walked before Austin Zillweger delivered an RBI single to make it 2-0. ACU starting pitcher Garrett deMeyere was terrific over the ensuing 4 1/3 innings, retiring 13 straight Huskies at one point before running into a bit of trouble with two outs in the fifth.

deMeyere (2-5) retired the first two Huskies before allowing a double to Payetta and then an RBI single to Espinoza to make it 3-0. Espinoza tried to take second on the throw, but it was cut off and he was thrown out at second base to end the inning.

ACU finally put together some offense against HBU starting pitcher Addison Russ in the bottom of the fifth when Hunter Markwardt and Willie Harris led off with back-to-back singles. A double-steal moved runners to second and third and Markwardt came home on a groundout to second base by Draper, cutting the HBU lead to 3-1.

With Harris on third after the groundout, Derek Scott sent a fly ball into left field that was deep to drive in Harris to make it a 3-2 game. Crippen then doubled, but Braxton Wilks grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.

The Wildcats' final threat came in the bottom of the ninth when Markwardt reached on a two-out single and stole second to get into scoring position. Harris walked to give the Wildcats the tying and go-ahead runs on base for Draper, who flew out to left field to end the game.

Both starting pitchers were solid as Russ threw 112 pitches in a complete-game effort to improve to 5-2 on the season. deMeyere threw 101 pitches in a seven-inning effort.