ABILENE – UT Arlington baseball distanced itself from Abilene Christian with a sixth-run eighth inning en route to a 12-8 win Tuesday night at Crutcher Scott Field. A two-out, two-run home run by Noah Vaughan – his seventh of the season – made it a 9-5 game, and after
Briley Buckley was brought in from the bullpen, the Mavs' No. 6, 7 and 8 batters completed the unconventional cycle with a double to right center, single to right and a triple off the wall in left by David Renning.
ACU responded with three runs in its half of the eighth to close the deficit to 12-8, scoring twice on wild pitches in addition to an RBI triple by
Dalon Farkas, but came up empty in the ninth vs. Daniel James, who finished the game with two strikeouts and a ground ball on 11 pitches.
Farkas' triple was his first of the season and his first-inning single extended his team-best hitting streak to 18 games. He later gave ACU a 2-1 lead that frame, scoring on
Robert Salazar's grounder to shortstop.
ACU went on to take a 3-1 lead in the second on
Caleb Kyle's run-scoring single that plated
Collin Chaney, who made his first start of the spring at third base, and after three innings it was a 5-2 game in ACU's favor thanks to a solo home run by Salazar – his first of the year – and a RBI double by catcher
Zack Mausser.
UTA, however, tied the score at 5-5 in the fourth with three unearned runs, the last of which scored on R.J. Williams' two-run shot to the right-field corner off starter
Caleb Dougherty.
Brennan Lewis followed Dougherty to the mound and scattered two hits with two strikeouts in 2.1 innings of work.
Ryan Knowles then took over in the seventh and quickly loaded the bases on two singles and a walk. He nearly escaped the jam with an infield pop up and strikeout of Josh Minarez, but Renning worked a six-pitch walk to break the 5-5 tie.
Knowles left the bases loaded with a punch out of Easton Johnson, but lasted only five batters into the eighth and was lifted in favor of Buckley after surrendering Vaughn's home run.
Mark Geisel finished the game for ACU and delivered a scoreless ninth with runners stranded at the corners.
ACU collected six of its nine base hits off starter Cody Wernli and Drew Gooch, but did little vs. middle reliever Dylan Schneider until the eighth when the Wildcats scored three times vs. him on two hits. Schneider came on in the fourth and tossed four scoreless frames with three strikeouts until getting touched up by the top of ACU's order.
Ryan Buss got the final out of the eighth after Farkas' triple, and James pitched an efficient ninth with the game ending three hours and 12 minutes after the first pitch.
By comparison, the first UTA / ACU game of the season on March 20 – a 3-0 win for the Mavs – lasted all of 2:04.
Farkas and Kyle led the Wildcats with two hits apiece, going a combined 4-for-9 with four runs and two RBI.
The Wildcats are at Prairie View A&M tomorrow at 3 p.m. before starting a weekend series at McNeese.
