ABILENE – McNeese baseball scored six times between the second and fourth innings and quashed a potential Wildcat comeback with a three-run seventh en route to a 10-4 victory Saturday at Crutcher Scott Field to event their three-game series at one game apiece. The rubber game between Abilene Christian and the Cowboys is set for Sunday at 1 p.m.
With the wind gusting in from the southwest, the Cowboys launched back-to-back home runs over the left-field wall to start the second inning and later received a two-run bloop double down the left-field line from Payton Harden that made it a 4-0 game. Harden finished the game 4-for-6 with a run and three RBI.
The Cowboys continued to pad their lead with several two-out, run-scoring hits. They made it a 5-0 game in the third inning on Carson Maxwell's double and pushed their lead to 6-0 in the fourth on a two-bagger to the right-center gap by Nate Fisbeck.
ACU (22-19, 9-11 Southland) finally cracked the scoreboard in the fourth on
Dalon Farkas' second home run of the series – a three-run shot to left-center field that cut the Cowboys' lead to 6-3. Unfortunately, the Wildcats wouldn't record another hit until
Colton Eager's eighth-inning single.
In between, the Cowboys (22-21, 8-12 Southland) seemingly put the game out of reach with a three-run seventh – again with all the runs coming with two outs – and then in the eighth, Jake Dickerson rifled a single off second baseman
Ryne Randle's glove to score Clayton Rasbeary from second base.
The Wildcats tried to piece together a rally in the ninth with three of their first four batters reaching base, but Rhett Deaton (5-3) finished his complete-game effort by getting
Seth Watts to foul out and Matt Nerz on a fly ball to deep left-center field with runners in scoring position.
Brock Barger (2.2 IP) started for the Wildcats and he was followed to the mound by
Drew Hanson (4.0),
Zach Smith (0.0),
Kenny Otero (0.1) and
Hunter Spaeth (2.0).
