ABILENE – A 2-1 game entering the seventh slowly morphed into an 11-6 final as Abilene Christian and TCU baseball combined for 14 runs over the final three innings Tuesday night at Crutcher Scott Field. The Wildcats' third consecutive loss dropped their record to 22-21, while the Horned Frogs snapped a five-game skid in improving to 24-19.
Both offenses started on the right foot. Jake Guenther delivered a two-run home in TCU's first at-bat and ACU immediately countered with a
Dalton Dunn leadoff triple (2-4, 2 runs) followed by a
Luis Trevino (2-3, run, RBI) sacrifice fly RBI to center field.
The pitching staffs afterward began to settle into their respective grooves by putting up five-straight zeroes from the second to sixth innings. ACU's
Logan Patterson (2Ks) posted three shutout innings in relief of starter
Bryant Jordan (1-1), but was countered each step of the way by TCU's Haylen Green (3-1).
Brock Barger replaced Patterson to begin the sixth and tossed a 1-2-3 inning with three groundouts, but the seventh inning wasn't as kind to the senior as he allowed two runs on three hits that pushed TCU's lead to 4-1.
The Horned Frogs then rifled through three ACU pitchers during their six-run eighth inning, in which they sent 10 batters to the plate. Six of TCU's first seven batters recorded a base hit with the final knock a two-run round-tripper off the bat of left fielder Josh Watson.
To their credit, the Wildcats batted around in their half of the eighth trying to dig out of that 10-1 hole. The inning started with a double from Dunn and was followed by a walk to
Derek Scott and catcher's interference with Trevino at the plate.
Collin Chaney brought in a run via a bases-loaded walk and
Dalon Farkas (3-4, run, two RBI) ripped a two-run double down the left-field line.
Chaney later scored on
Ryne Randle's fly ball to center field, and Farkas scored the home team's sixth and final run on
Eric Wimpee's RBI single through the left side.
TCU scored its last run (unearned) in the ninth on a Wildcats' throwing error.
Tonight's game was the final non-conference contest of the 2019 season. Next up for the Wildcats is a three-game road series at New Orleans. ACU enters the weekend one game out of the final postseason spot with nine Southland Conference games remaining.
