ABILENE – Abilene Christian baseball lost both ends of a doubleheader Sunday to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Chapman Field. The Wildcats lost the first game, 7-3, as the Islanders scored four times in the seventh inning, and dropped the second game, 6-5, with their ninth inning rally falling one run short.
The two defeats evened the Wildcats' overall and conference records at 10-10 and 3-3, while the Islanders improved to 14-8 and 4-2 after losing Friday's first game of the season, 4-1.
The Wildcats return to action Friday for the start of a three-game series at Southeastern Louisiana.
Game One – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 7, Abilene Christian 3
The Wildcats lost an early 3-1 lead as the Islanders scored six unanswered runs between the third and seventh innings en route to their 7-3 win.
A&M-Corpus Christi tied the score at 3-3 in the sixth on reliever
Hunter Spaeth's wild pitch and sent eight men to the plate as part of a four-run seventh inning. Spaeth (1-2) retired two of the first three batters he faced in the seventh before the Islanders record four consecutive base hits, the last two of which were RBI knocks by catcher Trevor Beard and Steve Rivera-Chijin.
The Wildcats scored all their runs in the third inning.
Lane Bourland drew a lead off walk and scored three batters later on
Luis Trevino's RBI single, and then Dalton Farkas came home on
Koby Claborn's run-scoring hit to right-center field. An error by Islander's second baseman Itchy Burts allowed Trevino to score the inning's third and final run.
ACU largely was held in check the rest of the way by starter Leo Perez and relievers Cody LeCompte (1-1) and David Worrell (SV).
Perez allowed only three additional bases runners through the sixth inning. LeCompte retired six of the seven batters he faced between the seventh and eighth, but was lifted in the ninth after runners reached the corners with two outs. Worrell then came into the game and retired Trevino on a comebacker to the mound.
Jonathan Nicholson started for ACU but did not factor in the decision. He pitched five innings but was taken out after allowing a leadoff double to Beard to begin the sixth inning.
Game Two – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 6, Abilene Christian 5
ACU nearly came back from several four-run deficits in its nightcap at Corpus Christi, scoring three times in the ninth but Worrell was able to earn his second save of the day and third of the night after striking out shortstop
Michael Herrera to end the game.
The Wildcats entered their final at-bat trailing 6-2 and immediately got their first four men on base. Farkas led off with a double, which served as the 48th of his career to tie
Russell Crippen for most by a Wildcat D1 era player, and then Scott singled to put runners at the corners for
Luis Trevino.
Trevino was walked by Worrell to load the bases and
Koby Claborn followed with a RBI single down the left-field line. Designated hitter
Ryne Randle plated the second run with a fly ball to right field, and with two outs left fielder
Riley Donahue made it a one-run game with a single through the left side to finish 3-for-4 with three RBI and a run.
Donahue earlier in the game hit a solo home run – his second of the season – to cut the Islander's lead to 4-1, and in the sixth he singled in Randle that made it 5-2.
The Islanders' offense generated one run in the first inning, three in the third, one more in the fourth and the eventual game-winner off a Trevor Beard sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Brock Barger (1-3) suffered the loss after giving up five runs on seven hits and one walk through 3.2 innings. He was followed to the mound by
Logan Patterson (1.1 IP, 2K) and
Brennan Lewis, who was responsible for the eighth-inning run.
Zach Rumfield (3-0) earned the win in relief of starter A.G. Ayala. Rumfield gave up two runs on three hits and two walks through 3.1 innings after Ayala tossed two scoreless frames.
