HOUSTON – Zane Otten's two-out infield RBI single plated the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning Thursday afternoon at Husky Field as Houston Baptist dealt the ACU Wildcats more heartbreak with an 8-7 win in the opener of a three-game Southland Conference series.
With two outs and Austin Zillweger at third, Otten hit a two-out chopper to deep shortstop where
Mark Pearson had to wait for another hop. Otten beat the throw to first by a step, allowing Zillweger to score the game-winning run.
The loss extends ACU's losing streak to 14 games and drops the Wildcats to 9-21 overall and 1-15 in conference play. HBU, meanwhile, improves to 15-15 and 7-6. The teams will continue their series Friday at 2 p.m. before wrapping it up Saturday at 1 p.m.
ACU entered the top of the ninth needing a two-run rally just to keep the game going, and that's exactly what the Wildcats got. Trailing 7-5,
Luis Trevino led off with a single and went to second when
Russell Crippen was hit by a pitch.
Anthony Dominguez then reached on an infield single and Trevino went around to score when the throw got past the first baseman, cutting the lead to 7-6.
With Crippen at third,
Aaron Draper dropped down a perfect squeeze bunt, plating Crippen and tying the game at 7-7. But the Wildcats left runners stranded at second and third with a popout and strikeout to end the inning.
Zillweger led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to right field and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and then went to third on a groundout to Trevino at first base. Otten then chopped an 0-1 pitch from
Caleb Dougherty toward shortstop, and that was the ballgame.
"That's a tough one to swallow," ACU head coach
Britt Bonneau said. "We got what we wanted, which was a ground ball, but the guy (Zellweger) busted it down the line and beat it out. Tip your hat to him. Our guys fought, but we just can't get over the hump right now. The good thing about baseball, though, is that we get another chance less than 24 hours from now. I have no doubt we'll come out (Friday) ready to play and we'll play hard."
The Wildcats led 2-0, trailed 5-2 and then tied the game at 5-5 in the top of the eighth, but couldn't hold the tie in the bottom of the eighth. In the bottom half of the eighth, Jake Puncheon dropped down a perfect squeeze bunt to plate Zane Otten to give HBU a 6-5 lead. Tyler Depreta-Johnson then dumped a ball into right field that fell in front of
Russell Crippen, driving in Brandon Brintz with a run to make it 7-5.
The Wildcats jumped on top in the top of the third on a two-run single by Trevino, plating
Dalon Farkas and
Cole Solomon. But the Huskies answered with three runs (only two earned) in the bottom of the third to take a 3-2 lead. HBU tacked on single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to push its lead to 5-2 going to the top of the seventh.
But ACU took advantage of an HBU error and came up with three runs on three hits to tie the game at 5-5.
Anthony Dominguez had a two-run single up the middle to cut the HBU lead to 5-4 before
Aaron Draper dropped a single into right field to score
Russell Crippen with the game-tying run.
Zach Kornely took the loss for the Wildcats, while J.T. Newton picked up the win. Trevino was 4 for 5 with two runs and two RBI on the day, while Dominguez, Draper and Pearson all had two hits for the Wildcats.
