ABILENE – Abilene Christian baseball avoided both extra innings and defeat with a magnificient ninth-inning comeback Saturday afternoon at Crutcher Scott Field, scoring three times on five hits in its final at-bat to beat Incarnate Word, 6-5.
The Wildcats are now 15-15 (4-7 Southland) on the season, while the Cardinals are 20-11 (9-5) with the series tied at one game apiece. The rubber match is set for Sunday at 1 p.m.
ACU left the bases loaded in the eighth but a flawless 1-2-3 inning from game winner
Drew Hanson (2-2) in the ninth helped set the stage for the Wildcats' offensive heroics. Shortstop
Dalton Dunn led off with a double to left field vs. reliever Cody Allen and easily scored two batters later on Matt Muñoz' RBI single to right field against Johnny Foral (0-2).
The Cardinals' fifth pitcher of the game and fourth between the final two innings, Foral then surrendered in succession the game-tying and winning RBI singles to first baseman Colin Chaney and right fielder
Colton Eager. Chaney singled to right field to plate
Derek Scott, and Muñoz scored the winning run on Eager's base hit up the middle.
ACU's ninth-inning runs represented the fourth lead change of the game. The Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead off starter
Brock Barger with a home run by Sean Arnold followed by a Ryan Flores RBI double down the left field line. Flores later would hit UIW's go-ahead, two-run home run off Hanson in the eighth inning that put the visitors momentarily ahead, 5-3.
In between Flores' big hits, the Wildcats grabbed a 3-2 lead by the fifth inning. They cut UIW's lead in half at 2-1 on
Luis Trevino's eighth home run of the spring in the fourth inning, and one inning later,
Dalon Farkas singled home
Seth Watts and later scored on a Tyler Miller wild pitch.
The score remained tied at 3-3 until the seventh when an odd combination of two-out wild pitches and passed balls allowed Ryan Gonzalez to score.
Barger was charged with the seventh inning run (unearned) but was unhittable for the Wildcats between the second and sixth innings, racking up five of his six strikeouts. He retired 12 straight batters after surrendering a two-out walk in the second until hitting a batter with two gone in the sixth. Barger and his teammates also breathed a big sigh of relief when Scott robbed Flores of a home run with a leaping catch at the center-field wall.
Barger was followed to the mound by
Kenny Otero (2K),
Logan Patterson (0.1 IP) and Hanson, who struck out three in his 2.0 innings of relief.
