HOUSTON – Abilene Christian baseball dropped the third game of its series at Houston Baptist Saturday, 8-1, to fall back to 18-17 (6-9 Southland Conference) on the season. The Wildcats were limited to five base hits by Husky pitchers Kyle Gruller and J.T. Newton, with three of those by sophomore right fielder
Colton Eager, who went 3-4 with two doubles.
Dalon Farkas also reached base twice and scored the Wildcats' lone run in the third on
Luis Trevino's RBI double, and third baseman
Seth Watts reached base late with a two-out single in the ninth.
Guller's win was his first of the season as he struck out 13 over 8.0 innings and 127 pitches. Newton then closed the door in the ninth with two strikeouts bookending Watts' single.
All four Wildcat pitchers allowed at least one run. Starter
Jonathan Nicholson was charged with five runs on six hits through 1.1 innings.
Bryant Jordan then pitched ACU through the third inning, and
Hunter Spaeth struck out two through 4.0 frames. Spaeth surrendered one run in the fourth, but held the Huskies off the board from the fifth to seventh innings.
Brennan Lewis pitched the ninth, allowing one unearned run to score on two hits.
The weather in Houston forced the Wildcats and Huskies to end their three-game series early, which means both teams are off Sunday. ACU now comes home to start a nine-game homestand that will take the Wildcats through the end of the month.
The Wildcats' homestand includes three-consecutive Tuesday night games vs. Arlington Baptist (April 16), Dallas Christian (April 23) and TCU (April 30) plus two Soutland Conference series vs. Lamar (April 18-20) and McNeese (April 26-28).
