ABILENE — Central Arkansas pitcher Tyler Gray went pitched eight dominant innings Friday night and Tyler Smith and Rigo Aguilar each drove in a pair of runs as Central Arkansas knocked off ACU, 10-3, in the first game of a three-game Southland Conference series at Crutcher Scott Field.
The Wildcats' fifth straight loss drops them to 19-24 on the season and 5-17 in Southland Conference play, while the Bears improve to 26-18 and 14-8. The teams will resume the series Saturday at 2 p.m. with the finale set for 1 p.m. Sunday.
ACU led early with two runs in the third on an RBI double by Matt Munoz and an RBI single by
Dalon Farkas. But those would be the only highlights of the night for ACU as Gray dominated the Wildcats, striking out a UCA single-game record 15 batters against just one walk in eight innings. The Minnesota Twins' 20th-round draft pick last season threw 112 pitches before exiting after pitching to the first two batters in the ninth inning, but not before he also became UCA's all-time strikeouts leader in its NCAA Division I era.
UCA answered with two runs in the fourth to tie the game and then tacked on three in the fifth, one in the sixth and fourth in the eighth against five ACU pitchers.
Brock Barger allowed five runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 inning as he absorbed the loss to fall to 2-6 on the year.
