ABILENE – Senior first baseman
Koby Claborn drove in the game-winning during both ends of Abilene Christian's doubleheader sweep of Hartford Saturday at Crutcher Scott Field. The Wildcats won game one, 11-7, and captured game two, 8-7, in walkoff style after Claborn's fly ball to left field sailed far enough to bring home outfielder
Dalon Farkas.
The weekend series sweep was ACU's second straight and lifted its season record to 7-5, while Hartford – an NCAA Regional participant from 2018 – fell to 0-6.
The Wildcats batted .314 for the series and outscored the Hawks, 21-15, behind five doubles, two triples and a pair of
Luis Trevino home runs. All three wins additionally were earned by relief pitchers as ACU finished the three-game set with a 3.00 ERA, .213 opponents' batting average, and 27 strikeouts.
The Wildcats return to action Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. game vs. Texas A&M, and will begin Southland Conference play at home Friday at 6:30 p.m. vs. Northwestern State.
Game One – ACU 11, Hartford 7
Abilene Christian won its tug-of-war with the Hawks thanks to five unanswered runs scored between the sixth and eighth innings combined with the effectiveness of senior closer
Brennan Lewis, who today earned his third save of the spring behind 2.0 frames of hitless work.
Hartford took its first lead of the game at 7-6 with three runs in the fifth; however, the Wildcats put together a three-run inning of their own in the sixth all with two outs. Starting pitcher / designated hitter
Derek Scott ripped a double to left field to bring in the game-tying run and Claborn – who was credited with seven RBI this series – punched a two-run single up the middle that gave ACU the lead for good at 9-7.
The team scored its runs in favor of middle reliever
Brock Barger (1-1) who survived a rocky fifth by facing the minimum number of batters in the sixth and seventh. He started the sixth inning with a strikeout of right fielder Eric Bonkowski, and after walking Zachary Ardito, turned an unassisted double play after snaring a line drive off the bat of Chris Sullivan.
The Wildcat infield spun its second double play of the game during a scoreless seventh, and then Lewis came on for the two-inning save. The ball never left in the infield in the eighth inning, and second baseman
Dalton Dunn made two fine defensive plays behind Lewis in the ninth before the hurler ended the game with a strikeout of cleanup hitter Nik Pagan.
ACU added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth with senior catcher
Luis Trevino crushing his second home run of the game and third of the season, and Claborn coming home on shortstop
Robert Salazar's triple off the center-field wall.
The Wildcats' offense finished with 14 base hits off three Hartford pitchers, five of which went for extra bases.
Game Two – ACU 8, Hartford 7
Koby Claborn recorded three consecutive sacrifice fly RBI from the fifth through ninth innings to help the Wildcats complete their second comeback of the day. His first in the fifth inning put ACU ahead 6-0, while his shots to center and left field in the seventh and ninth innings brought home the game-tying and winning runs. Claborn finished today with six RBI and seven for the series.
The Wildcats' bullpen coughed up a six-run lead as the Hawks put up three in the sixth and four in the seventh on just three base hits, but the Wildcats remained steady at the plate and on the basepaths.
Luis Trevino led off the seventh with a walk issued by Jake Regula (0-3) while his pinch runner
Seth Watts was able to get to second on a wild pitch, third on
Derek Scott's sharp ground ball to first base, and home on Claborn's fly ball to left field.
Two innings later,
Dalon Farkas started the decisive inning with a single to right and then both Watts and Scott were walked while trying to advance Farkas via a sacrifice bunt. With the bases loaded, Claborn drove the ball midway into left field and Farkas scored with relative ease as the throw came in offline.
The nightcap appeared to be ACU's for the taking from the first inning as the Wildcats scored its first run on Claborn's RBI ground ball to first base followed by a four-run second inning that featured back-to-back two-run doubles by Farkas and Trevino. Meanwhile, ACU starter
Jonathan Nicholson cruised through the Hawks' lineup twice through the first five innings (7K) before running into a spot of trouble in the sixth where the visitors scored three times on a wild pitch and two sacrifice flies.
Nicholson was in line to get the win but a mix of free passes and bad luck in the seventh inning gave Hartford its first lead of the game. The Hawks got within one run at 6-5 on Chris' Sullivan's fly ball to center field and went up 7-6 after Ashton Bardzell slashed a two-run double down the left-field line.
ACU's third reliever
Logan Patterson (1-0) settled down the Hawks, however, with two almost perfect innings. He retired all three batters he faced in the eighth after coming into the game with a runner at first base, and worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth as catcher
Lane Bourland caugh Donnie Cohoon stealing second followed by consecutive strikeouts of Ardito and Sullivan.
