ABILENE – Abilene Christian baseball was on the losing end of its longest game in four seasons Friday night at Crutcher Scott Field as the Wildcats dropped a 4-2, 14-inning decision to Incarnate Word that lasted three hours and 41 minutes.
The first of a three-game series between the Wildcats and Cardinals was ACU's longest in terms of time and innings since March 03, 2015 when it lost a 6-5 game in 16 innings to fifth-ranked Texas Tech in Lubbock. That game took almost five hours to complete, ending at the 4:42 mark.
How did UIW and ACU get to 14 innings tonight? It was a little bit of everything: quality defense, pitching well with runners on base, and a pair of timely hits from Cardinals' designated hitter Lee Thomas, whose two-out, two-strike, two-run double tied the score at 2-2 in the fourth inning and whose leadoff home run to begin the 14th inning served as the game-winner.
Early on the Wildcats (14-15, 3-7 Southland) got a good jump on the Cardinals and their starter Luke Taggart, scoring twice on four hits through the first three innings. ACU took a 1-0 lead on
Seth Watts' sacrifice fly to left field that plated
Riley Donahue, and went up 2-0 after a one-out ground ball off the bat of
Luis Trevino scored
Dalon Farkas from third base.
Farkas led off the third inning with his 11th double of the year and advanced to third on
Derek Scott's fly ball to the right-field wall before coming home to score.
Koby Claborn's single following Trevino's third inning at-bat and
Riley Donahue drew a two-out walk, but afterward no Wildcat would reach base against Taggart or reliever Bernie Martinez (6-0) until
Dalton Dunn's two-out single in the 10th.
Meanwhile, ACU starter
Spencer Chirpich matched Taggart pitch-for-pitch. He tossed a 1-2-3 first inning, struck out two batters to escape a jam in the second, and after UIW (21-10, 9-4 SLC) tied the score at 2-2, he prevented any further damage by getting a double play ball in the fifth, followed by three fly outs to left in the sixth, and three ground outs in the seventh. Chirpich left the game at 94 pitches, turning it over to reliever
Brennan Lewis who two-hit the Cardinals between the eighth and 12th innings with two strikeouts.
The Wildcats had a golden opportunity to make a winner out of Lewis in the 11th when Trevino tripled off the wall in right-center field with one out to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. He was pinch run for by speedy Matt Muñoz, and after Claborn was intentionally walked he was lifted in favor of
Zach Smith. Unfortunately, Smith's jump off the bag was too good when Donahue lined the ball right to shortstop Ryan Gonzalez, who promptly doubled Smith off first base.
ACU would not have another runner reach base the rest of the game as Martinez retired the final 10 batters he faced.
Reliever
Hunter Spaeth was tagged with the loss for surrendering the Thomas home run. He was followed to the mound by
Logan Patterson.
The Wildcats and Cardinals continue their series Saturday at 2 p.m.
