ABILENE – Junior center fielder Matt Muñoz finished a double shy of the cycle with five RBI from the leadoff spot, and Abilene native
Jonathan Nicholson pitched 6.0 solid innings with five strikeouts in leading Abilene Christian baseball to a closer-than-expected 10-9 win Friday night at Crutcher Scott Field to begin the 2018 season.
The Wildcats (1-0) took a 10-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth only to watch Quinnipiac (0-1) piece together a nail-biting rally vs. relievers
Ryan Knowles and
Briley Buckley. Knowles pitched a fairly uneventful eighth inning complete with two strikeouts, but gave up a leadoff single to No. 9 batter Ian Ostberg followed by a walk to Andre Marrero (3-4, run, RBI).
Dylan Lutz nearly then grounded into a double play, beating out the throw from second base, which led the coaching staff to turn to Buckley. The sophomore from Olathe, Kan., walked the first batter he faced and cleanup batter Liam Scafariello ripped a two-run double down the third-base line to make it a 10-6 game.
Scafariello scored two batters later with two outs on a double by Julius Saporito, and then he came home on a throw in the dirt from ACU shortstop
Nolan Ritchie, cutting the Wildcats' lead to 10-9. Thankfully, the game ended on the next batter as Buckley got pinch hitter Frank Cascio looking at strike three on a 2-2 pitch that hit the outside corner.
The ending of tonight's game was unexpected based on how it started. ACU scored one in the first on
Riley Donahue's double down the left-field line, and after 2.0 innings it was a 5-0 contest as Muñoz tripled in two runs and scored on wild pitch.
Derek Scott (3-6, run, RBI) also recorded a RBI single that inning to plate
Caleb Kyle (1-2, 2 runs).
Two innings later Muñoz made it a 7-0 game with a home run to right field. He then singled in his next at-bat to get within a double of the cycle, but flew out to center in the seventh and drew a four-pitch walk in the eighth.
As for Nicholson, he started the game with 4.0 scoreless innings and the two runs he did surrender came on ground-ball outs in the fifth. Ostberg and Marrero led off the frame with consecutive singles, advanced a base on a wild pitch, and scored on back-to-back grounders put in play by Lutz and Brian Moskey.
The Wildcats got each of those runs back in the fifth and sixth innings in building a 9-2 lead.
Robert Salazar scored on Muñoz fifth-inning single to center, and Scott came home in the sixth on Ritchie's single through the right side. ACU scored the game-winning run in the eighth on back-to-back doubles from pinch hitter
Dalon Farkas and Salazar.
Mark Geisel followed Nicholson into the game and gave up two runs in the seventh. Knowles then pitched the eighth and to several batters in the ninth.
Taylor Luciani took the loss for Quinnipiac after giving up seven runs on nine hits and a walk. Arthur Correira pitched the fifth and sixth, surrendering two runs on five hits and Mike DellaMedaglia tossed the final two innings and gave up one run on four hits with 3Ks.
ACU and Quinnipiac continue their series Saturday at 2 p.m. Sunday's finale was moved to 11 a.m.
