ARLINGTON – Senior
Drew Hanson, who missed most of 2018 with an injury, recorded his best start in the better part of a year Wednesday night at Clay Gould Ballpark, retiring all 17 UT Arlington Mavericks he faced on 76 pitches in the Wildcats' 4-2 victory.
The victory snapped a five-game losing streak for the 11-13 Wildcats and earned them a split of the season series with UTA, which slipped to 16-10 on the spring. ACU also has won three of five games in Arlington since the two sides renewed their in-state rivalry in 2014.
A native of Coppell, Texas and four-year varsity letterwinner at Abilene Christian, Hanson (1-2) started the 2018 season with a complete game vs. Quinnipiac before suffering an injury 24 pitches into his second start vs. Texas Southern. Fast forward to this season and the 6-foot-2 right-hander had been used sparingly over the first month. He had a little success two weeks ago at Baylor (4K in 3.0IP), and then tonight he was in complete control of the Mavs' lineup by not allowing a baserunner over 5.2 innings.
Hanson struck out three batters, recorded 10 fly outs (two in foul territory) and four ground outs before giving way to reliever
Hunter Spaeth, who was called on to face Aaron Funk in the sixth. The Mavs' left fielder promptly spoiled the Wildcats' bid for a combined no-hitter with a triple to right field, but Spaeth preserved the shutout one inning longer after getting Conner Aube to pop up to
Ryne Randle at second base.
Spaeth went on to deliver a scoreless seventh, but after two reached base against him in the eighth, closer
Brennan Lewis was called in for the four-out save, which was his sixth of the season. Lewis ended the eighth with a fly ball to center, and was one strike away from giving ACU its second shutout of the season when Zac Cook ripped a RBI double to score Andrew Miller. Cook then came home from third base on Josh Minjarez' single through the right side, cutting ACU's lead to 4-2, but Lewis recovered to get backup first baseman Dylan Paul to fly out to shortstop
Dalton Dunn.
ACU's offense collected 10 base hits against eight UTA pitchers with most of the damage done in the fourth inning against starter Riley Bost (0-2) as the top four of its lineup all reached base, resulting in two runs. Leadoff man
Dalon Farkas and center fielder
Derek Scott each singled, and then
Luis Trevino and
Koby Claborn followed with run-scoring doubles to make it a 2-0 game.
Claborn again doubled and scored a run in the sixth, stretching the Wildcats' lead to 3-0, and they added a huge insurance run in the ninth when Matt Muñoz cracked his first home run of the season over the wall in right field.
The Wildcats return to action Friday at 6:30 p.m. for the start of a three-game series vs. Grambling State. Saturday's and Sunday's first pitches are set for 2 and 1 p.m. at Crutcher Scott Field.
