ABILENE – A walk, bunt and errant throw combined to give Abilene Christian baseball an 8-7 walkoff win Friday night at Crutcher Scott Field over Mississippi Valley State.
The Wildcat's first extra-inning win of the season lifted their season record to 7-1, while the Delta Devils remain winless at 0-6.
MVSU – humiliated on the diamond last weekend at New Mexico State – perhaps thought it turned a corner earlier this evening as took a 7-5 lead into the ninth.
But those final three outs always are the toughest to get.
Reliever Jeremiah Barr had just tossed an efficient eighth inning with a couple of strikeouts, and was in line to record his his first save before everything fell apart.
Pinch hitter
Colton Eager led off with an infield single, moved to second on a ground ball, and then
Caleb Kyle (2-4, 2 doubles, 2 runs) drew a walk. That free pass set the stage for designated hitter
Dalon Farkas (2-5, 1 run, 2 RBI), who clubbed a game-tying double that rolled all the way to the wall in left-center field.
And with that momentum shifted in his team's favor, reliever Garrett Hutson (1-0) promptly mowed down the Delta Demons in order giving him six strikeouts through 3.0 innings of work and the minimum nine batters faced.
Derek Scott (2-3, 3 runs) then began the home half of the 10th with a walk, got balked over to second base by reliever Wendell Rieves (0-1) and scored when
Robert Salazar's sacrifice bunt was thrown past the first baseman by catcher Aaron Barkley.
ACU's comeback was its third of the game. The Wildcats first dug their way out of a 2-0 deficit with runs in the first and second innings, and took a 5-3 lead in the fifth after Kyle and third baseman
Nolan Ritchie scored on a pair of errors.
Kyle double and scored on a two-base error by second baseman Kendrick Wooten, and Ritchie came home when right fielder Willie Johnson collided with Wooten along the right field line.
Wooten appeared to call for the ball and was camped underneath it when bumped from behind by Johnson.
But MVSU climbed right back into the game, tying the score with two runs in the sixth off starter
Jonathan Nicholson (6K) and taking a 7-5 lead in the seventh vs. reliever
Brennan Lewis (2K). Both of those runs, however, were unearned.
Dustin Stewart started for MVSU and scattered eight hits over seven innings, allowing four earned runs with one strikeout.
The Wildcats and Delta Devils conclude their series Saturday with a 2 p.m. doubleheader.
