ABILENE – Abilene Christian baseball sent nine batters to the plate during a four-run eighth inning that featured a pair of RBI doubles by seniors
Luis Trevino and
Koby Claborn. Classmate
Brennan Lewis then came on in the ninth and sealed the Wildcats' 8-6 win behind a 10-pitch outing that ended with a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play.
Today's ACU victory tied the series at one game apiece with the rubber game set for Sunday at 11 a.m.
Rick McCarty Postgame Interview
The Wildcats went into their final at-bat down 6-4 but got their first two men on base as reliever Jack Ipsen plunked leadoff man Matt Muñoz and allowed a single through the right side to junior Ryan Randle. That led the Bulldogs to call in John MacDonald from the bullpen, who surrendered an RBI double to left field by Trevino, followed by a one-out intentional walk to
Derek Scott and the big shot by first baseman
Koby Claborn – a bases-loaded double to the corner.
Lewis' ninth inning started with an infield single, but he got No. 9 batter Jake Gustin to fly out to
Riley Donahue in left field and induced the twin killer off the bat of James Ciliento, who was 2-3 with three runs entering that at-bat.
The Wildcats again started today's game with a 2-0 deficit, but tied the score on Muñoz' second-inning RBI single. After getting down 4-2 in the third, they took advantage of some wildness by the Bryant bullpen by scoring twice in the sixth inning on a wild pitch and
Dalon Farkas' sacrifice fly to right field that followed four consecutive walks.
Five Bryant pitchers today issued 11 walks and hit two batters, but their offense kept bailing them out, and in the seventh they went ahead 6-4 on back-to-back two-out RBI singles from Ciliento and Chris Wright.
ACU's
Hunter Spaeth and
Kenny Otero would combine for a scoreless eighth inning. Spaeth lasted 3.2 innings in relief of starter
Derek Scott, but came out of the game after hitting catcher Gabby Cruz. Otero then only needed two pitches to get designated hitter Tyler Panno to ground into an inning-ending fielder's choice in earning ACU's first win of 2019.
Scott lasted 4.0 innings during which he gave up four runs on six hits and three walks with four strikeouts. He also drew two walks at the plate, stole two bases, and scored the eighth-inning insurance run from first base.
Claborn, Farkas and Randle each finished the game with two base hits as the Wildcats totaled nine base knocks.
Vito Morgese tossed 5.0 innings as the Bryant starter. He surrendered two runs on five hits and six walks, and was followed by Tyler Schoff who issued four free passes on 28 pitches in 0.1 innings of work.
