FT. WORTH – Abilene Christian baseball invoked its own version of Lupton Magic Tuesday night during the 11th inning of its 4-2 victory over Texas Christian, scoring two runs on a series of mistakes by the former nationally ranked program. Junior hurler
Garrett Hutson then came back out for his third inning of work, and struck out the tying run at the plate for what's considered to be the biggest win in program history.
At 18-14, TCU clearly is not the same team that went to four consecutive College World Series, nor is it deserving of a top-25 ranking, but the Horned Frogs were playing good ball as of late and had won its last four coming into tonight's contest with the Wildcats (18-17). They won their final game vs. Oklahoma on April 9, and then edged UT Arlington, 6-5, before sweeping a two-game road series at Kansas.
TCU also claims one of the best pitching staffs in all of the Big 12, ranking first in walks allowed (3.51) and strikeouts (9.9) per nine innings and strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.83), so it was fairly odd to see all four of ACU's runs score via walk or hit by pitch.
Junior center fielder Matt Muñoz – who hit for the cycle Friday vs. Houston Baptist – was twice plunked tonight, the last of which led off the fateful 11th inning. He moved to second base on a walk issued by Durbin Feltman (five saves) to catcher
Lane Bourland and advanced to third following a fielding error by first baseman Connor Wanhanen on
Seth Watts' sacrifice bunt.
With the bases loaded, Feltman recorded a swinging strikeout of
Zach Smith for the first out but hit leadoff man
Caleb Kyle on a 1-2 pitch to break the 2-2 tie. ACU added a second insurance run when Feltman walked left fielder
Derek Scott on four pitches.
It was indeed an unexpected turn of events for TCU and its closer since Feltman mowed down the Wildcats in the ninth and 10th innings on just 19 pitches in extending his scoreless inning streak to 25.0. He recorded three Ks and three ground balls to second base during these two frames.
Hutson, like Feltman, also came on in the ninth inning and was close to flawless in his 47-pitch outing. The El Dorado, Kan., native wrapped three fly balls in the ninth inning around a one-out single by Wanhanen, and in the 10th, he retired the side in order with his first strikeout. Hutson (4-1) allowed an 11th-inning leadoff single to second baseman Coby Boulware, but caught a liner off the bat of Zach Humphreys for out No. 1, and watched Scott snare a line drive in left field vs. Josh Watson for out No. 2, before ending the 3 hour and 39 minute battle with a whiff of Wanhanen.
This was an excellent bounce-back outing for the Wildcat newcomer as he suffered just his first loss of the season Saturday in a 13-5 home defeat vs. Houston Baptist.
On the mound for ACU prior to Hutson were starter
Ryan Knowles and middle relievers
Colton Brasher and
Brennan Lewis. Knowles allowed five base runners in 3.0 scoreless innings and stranded all of them in scoring position – including three at third base. A native of Jacksonville, Fla., Knowles escaped his first and second-inning jams with a ground ball to first base, and got DH Michael Landestoy to chase after strike three to end the third.
Brasher recorded a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, but got into trouble with a 2-0 lead in the fifth as TCU scored twice on two hits, two walks and a hit by pitch. The first four Horned Frog batters all reached vs. Brasher to make it a 2-1 game, and a fly ball to center by A.J. Balta plated the game-tying run (Boulware) from third base. Landestoy then lined out to Muñoz in center field, and outfielder
Riley Donahue gunned Watson out at the plate following Johnny Rizer's single through the right side.
Brasher again found himself in trouble with one out in the sixth, but Lewis rode to the rescue with a 4-6-3 inning-ending double play. Lewis went on to toss a scoreless seventh and eighth to keep the score knotted at 2-2.
ACU's offense faced six pitchers this evening, starting with Jared Janczak who allowed an unearned run in his first and only inning of work. Janczak hit Kyle to begin the game and watched him score four batters later on
Dalton Dunn's RBI ground ball to first base after the inning was prolonged by the pitcher's throwing error (Donahue sacrifice bunt).
The Wildcats held that one-run lead until the fifth when Dunn doubled home
Koby Claborn (walk) with two outs off reliever Haylen Green. Claborn scored all the way from first base and slid into home with Dunn's hit reaching the left-center wall. Incredibly, of the 15 base hits recorded tonight, Dunn had the only one to go for extra bases.
Green lasted a total of 4.0 innings, during which he struck out a game-high six batters to go along with the one run he surrendered in the fifth.
Cal Coughlin struck out two batters in his scoreless eighth inning, and after Feltman was chased in the 11th, Jake Eissler prevented any further damage with a strikeout of Calborn and ground ball from Donahue.
Dunn led all Wildcat hitters tonight with three hits in five at-bats and two RBI.
Next up for ACU Baseball is a three-game series at Lamar, which begins Friday at 6 p.m.
