ABILENE – Abilene Christian baseball set eight NCAA DI-era team and individual single-game records Saturday in its 23-5 beatdown of Grambling State and likely would have set more if the contest had not be shortened to seven innings.
Team records set or tied today at Crutcher Scott Field included:
Most Runs: 23
Most RBI: 22
Most Triples: 2
Most Home Runs: 4
Individual records set or tie, meanwhile, included
Derek Scott's and
Koby Claborn's four runs, plus Claborn's seven RBI, 11 total bases, and two home runs. Claborn, the Wildcats' starting first baseman went 4-for-4 with a first-inning solo shot, RBI single
and double in the third, and the
piece de resistance – a fourth-inning grand slam. His efforts from today lifted his season batting average to .345 and his five round-trippers are one behind team leader
Luis Trevino, who went 2-for-3 with a triple, single, walk, four RBI and three runs scored.
ACU scored twice in the first inning and put the game well out of reach with an 11-run third inning during which the Wildcats sent 14 men to the plate. Incredibly, nine of those runs were scored with two outs as Scott, Trevino and Claborn all finished with two base hits that frame.
The home team went on to plate six runs in the fourth, capped by Claborn's slam, and then right fielder Matt Muñoz hit his second home run of the season to lead off the fifth inning.
The Wildcats' bench got involved during the sixth inning with
Colton Eager (E5, run),
Eric Wimpee (single),
Zach Smith (RBI single),
Wes Phillips (RBI double) all reaching base to score three additional runs.
Senior
Brock Barger (2-3) was the beneficiary of the offensive fireworks, but held up his end of things by tossing 5.0 shutout innings with six strikeouts on 72 pitches. He was followed to the mound by
David Ruot and
Mark Geisel, who each threw one inning of work.
The Wildcats finished the game with 21 base hits, which were there most since registering 25 last April vs. Houston Baptist, and of today's starting nine, six players finished with a multi-hit game.
ACU and Grambling conclude their three-game series Sunday at 1 p.m.
