ABILENE – Abilene Christian's 2018 baseball season reached its conclusion Saturday as the Islanders of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi – fighting for one of the final Southland Conference postseason berths – completed a three-game sweep of the Wildcats at Crutcher Scott Field, winning 10-3, behind a 3-for-5 two RBI performance from first baseman Harrison Dinicola.
Dinicola's double to the right-center gap in the third inning off starter
Jonathan Nicholson kick ignited a five-run frame for the visitors, which went into that at-bat trailing, 2-1. Dinicola's two-bagger was followed by a walk to Jackson Owens and another two-run double by Nick Anderson, who finished today's game with two doubles and two runs scored.
Following their five-run third, the Islanders' received a fifth-inning solo home run by catcher Drake Osborn and a pair of RBI in the sixth and eighth innings from Enrique Sanchez Jr. Owens also provided a sacrifice fly RBI in the eighth as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi finished its regular season at 30-26 (14-16 vs. the Southland Conference).
ACU grabbed the game's first lead as junior center fielder Matt Muñoz scored on an error by Dalton Stark in center field, and went ahead 2-1 in the second frame with
Colton Eager scoring on
Zach Smith's fly ball to left field. The Wildcats, however, were held in check offensively for the five innings by relievers Cole Carter (5-3) and Chad Romere and wouldn't score their third and final run until the eighth when Muñoz cleared the right-field wall for his fourth home run of the spring.
Following Nicholson to the mound were relievers
Brennan Lewis (2K),
Caleb Dougherty (2K) and
Derek Scott (1K).
ACU completed 2018 with a 21-33 overall record and 5-25 mark vs. the Southland Conference.
