SAN ANTONIO – Incarnate Word baseball scored four runs in the second and struck out the potential tying run at the plate in the ninth to beat Abilene Christian, 5-2, in the Southland Conference season opener for both teams Friday night at Sullivan Field.
The Wildcats (10-2, 0-1 Southland) got down 5-0 after 2.0 innings but began to chip away at that deficit with runs in the third and sixth.
Dalton Dunn singled to start the third and scored on a two-out hit by
Caleb Kyle to make it a 5-1 game, and Matt Muñoz tripled home
Robert Salazar in the sixth.
Muñoz unfortunately would be left at third. The Cardinals also would strand Kyle at first base in the seventh and
Dalon Farkas at third in the eighth following the left fielder's leadoff double. Then in the ninth, the Wildcats put two more men on base with two outs only to see Bernie Martinez finish his 131-pitch complete game with a punchout of ACU starting pitcher
Derek Scott.
Scott pitched the first 5.0 innings, allowing five runs to score on 10 hits, a walk, hit batsman and wild pitch.
The Cardinals (9-6, 1-0) scored their first-inning run on David Anaya's two-out RBI single to plate Ridge Rogers (3-5, 2 runs RBI) and posted four runs in the second inning on four singles in addition to an error by Farkas in left field.
The first two UIW batters reached base that inning and were bunted into scoring position by Mark Whitehead. Tyler Pettit then followed with a RBI single through the left side, and Rogers delivered a run scoring single to center that made it a 3-0 game.
Pettit would come around on Lee Thomas' single, and the ensuing miscue by Farkas allowed Rogers to score from first base.
UIW continued to threaten on offense for the rest of the game, but Scott got a fly out to right field with runners in scoring position in the third, and in the fifth, Muñoz gunned Anaya out at home plate following a two-out double by Sean Arnold.
Wildcat reliever
David Ruot walked the first two batters he faced in the sixth only to escape the jam by handling a comebacker to start a 1-6-3 double play, while
Ryan Knowles stranded four UIW baserunners between the seventh and eighth innings. Knowles walked the bases loaded in the seventh, but got Whitehead to foul out to
Seth Watts at third base.
ACU and UIW pick up their series Saturday at 2 p.m.
