HAMMOND, Louisiana — ACU jumped out to a 4-0 lead early Saturday afternoon, but couldn't make it stand up as Southeastern Louisiana rallied and then held on to beat ACU, 12-9, at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field to claim the Southland Conference baseball series
The Wildcats (10-12 overall and 3-5 in the Southland) lost to the Lions (10-12, 3-2) will conclude the three-game set Sunday at 1 p.m. ACU is at UT-Arlington at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday before returning home next weekend to begin an eight-game homestead when it hosts Grambling in a three-game non-conference series at Crutcher Scott Field.
ACU scored three runs in the first inning and added another in the second to take a 4-0 lead and chase Southeastern starting pitcher Nick Flesher. Riley Donahue had an RBI single and Seth Watts and Lane Bourland added bases-loaded RBI walks in the first as ACU grabbed a 3-0 lead. Luis Trevino added a solo home run — his team-high fifth home run of the season — in the second to make it 4-0.
But Southeastern answered back with two runs in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings to take a 6-4 lead. It was 6-5 when Southeastern scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh to push its lead to 11-5.
The Wildcats wouldn't die, however, as they put up a four-spot int he eighth to cut the lead to 11-9. Dalton Dunn, Dalon Farkas and Derek Scott each had RBI singles in the inning, and Trevino capped the scoring in the frame with an RBI fielder's choice. But with the game-tying run at the plate, reliever Jared Biddy got Donahue to fly out to left field to end the inning.
After the Lions tacked on another run in the bottom of the eighth, Biddy got the Wildcats to go up and down in order in the ninth to finish off the Lions' win, dropping ACU to 1-7 all-time against Southeastern.
Farkas was 3 for 5 on the day with one RBI, pushing his batting average to .318 on the season. Trevino had two RBI to increase his total to 20, tying Koby Claborn for the team lead. And Donahue had three more hits to push his batting average to .371 on the season.
Starting pitcher Brock Barger went 3 2/3 innings, allowing four runs (all earned) on four hits and two walks. Reliever Hunter Spaeth (1-3) was tagged with the loss after giving up seven runs (all earned) on seven hits in three innings of work.
