ABILENE – Close to nothing went right for Abilene Christian baseball during the start and end of its 13-6 loss to Stephen F. Austin Saturday afternoon at Crutcher Scott Field.
Four hits, four errors and a couple wild pitches spotted the Lumberjacks a 5-0 first-inning lead, and right after the Wildcats climbed back into the ball game with two runs in the sixth, SFA responded with six insurance runs over the final three innings. It also wasn't a good day for home-plate umpire Bill Powell who had to seek treatment after getting hit in the hand on the first pitch thrown by SFA starter Sean Beasley.
Powell never returned to the game after getting plunked, and between his injury stoppage and 10 pitching changes, today's affair lasted an afternoon-consuming three hours and 32 minutes – six minutes longer than Friday night's 10-inning game.
The Wildcats were down 6-0 before scoring their first run in the fourth inning on Matt Muñoz' RBI single to center field that scored
Derek Scott, and then they cut their deficit down to two at 6-4 thanks to a three-run fifth.
Seth Watts slid behind the tag at home on Scott's RBI single to right and
Dalon Farkas added a two-run shot to the left-center gap.
The Lumberjacks got a run back in the sixth on sacrifice fly to right field, but the Wildcats countered with two runs as
Riley Donahue came home on
Nolan Ritchie's pinch hit single and
Dalton Dunn scored on
Colton Eager's fly ball to center, which made it a 7-6 game. Unfortunately, ACU would get no closer as it left runners at the corners that inning plus two more in both the seventh and eighth.
SFA further subdued the Wildcats' momentum with its three-run seventh and essentially put the game on ice with three additional runs in the ninth. The last two runs scored on Jared Martin's double to right-center field.
The Lumberjacks totaled 17 hits – all of which but two were singles – and had four players finish with multi-hit games. Jake Gerorgiades led his side with four hits, two runs and a RBI, while Manny Vasquez and Nic Minor each ripped three base hits.
Brock Barger started for ACU but lasted only 1.0 inning and 45 pitches as four hits, a walk, a passed ball and several errors led to six unearned runs.
Caleb Dougherty followed and helped settle the SFA offense as he struck out five of the 18 batters he faced over 4.1 innings pitched.
Briley Buckley also did well coming out of the bullpen for the second straight day, punching out two batters between the seventh and eighth innings.
The Wildcats' offense roughed up Beasley and Jake Norton a little bit, scoring six runs against them over the first 6.0 innings, but were eventually cooled down by the relief combination of Cody Adams, Josh Ponder and Jesus Gamez.
SFA and ACU conclude their three-game series Sunday at 1 p.m.
