ABILENE – Abilene Christian baseball pieced together a methodic late-inning rally to tie the score at 7-7 in the bottom of the ninth only to see the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks respond with back-to-back home runs in the 10th and leave Crutcher Scott Field Friday night with an 11-7 victory.
Maybe the Baseball gods decided early on that the Wildcats weren't going to win this game no matter how hard they tried. But give some credit to ACU, which continually battled back to erase deficits of 4-1 and 7-3 thanks to solid play on both sides of the field between the fifth and ninth innings, ending with
Derek Scott's two-out RBI double to straightaway center field that scored pinch hitter
Caleb Kyle.
Unfortunately, that shot of adrenaline did not have a lasting effect as SFA's No. 8 and 9 hitters Jarrod Huber and Nic Minor blasted consecutive home runs to left field with one out off
Jonathan Nicholson, who earlier tossed a scoreless eighth and ninth. Scott then came to the mound from left field and the Lumberjacks tacked on two additional runs on three base hits against the junior from Abilene.
SFA finished their night with 14 base hits, eight of which went for extra bases. The Lumberjacks led off the game with a Nick Daley triple in grabbing a 1-0 first inning lead vs. starter
Garrett Hutson and made it 4-1 in the third on Jake Gerorgiades' and Josh Evans' run-scoring doubles. The fourth inning was just as tough for ACU reliever
Ryan Knowles as the Lumberjacks scored three more runs off him on four base hits and a wild pitch that pushed their lead back to 7-3.
ACU finally began to calm the SFA offense with
Briley Buckley on the mound. The sophomore from Olathe, Kan., tossed 3.0 hitless innings and walked two batters while striking out two others. He faced four batters in the fifth and sixth inning before retiring the side in order in the seventh with his team behind only two runs at the time, 7-5.
The Wildcats' scored a two-out run in the fifth to make it a 7-4 game as
Seth Watts' singled in Matt Muñoz from third base, and then in the seventh,
Riley Donahue came home on a wild pitch by Jesus Gamez. The Wildcats, however, would not get any closer that inning, leaving the bases loaded.
ACU again had an opportunity to produce a big offensive inning in the eighth as Scott's leadoff single was followed by a walk to
Dalon Farkas, but after
Robert Salazar singled home Scott with one out, Donahue's squeeze bunt back to the mound resulted in an out at the plate and Muñoz grounded out to end the threat.
In the ninth, Kyle led off with a hit by pitch but the next two batters struck out prior to Scott hammering his eighth double of the spring. With Scott representing the go-ahead run on second base, Farkas – who had homered in the first inning – rolled a ground ball to shortstop for the final out against game-winner Tyler Starks, who surrendered two runs on three hits in his 2.0 innings of work.
ACU left 14 runners on base overall while the Lumberjacks stranded 10.
After SFA took a four-run lead in the 10th, Josh Ponder was brought in from the bullpen to face three ACU batters and become the 11th pitcher used by both teams in a game that last three hours and 26 minutes. Ponder allowed a leadoff single by
Colton Eager but got an infield pop up and game-ending double play ball.
Dru Dziedzic started for SFA and lasted only 2.2 innings as he gave up three runs on five hits and three walks. Farkas homered off him in the first inning with two outs, and later scored one of two runs in the third on Salazar's two-run single.
Salazar, Scott and Eager all finished the game with three base hits and a combined four RBI.
The Wildcats and Lumberjacks continue their series with game two Saturday at 2 p.m.
