ABILENE - Abilene Christian baseball recorded one of its most lopsided victories of all time Friday at Crutcher Scott Field, beating the Arkansas State Red Wolves (0-5) in game on of their three game series, 26-3. The two schools resume their series Saturday at 4:05 p.m.
The Wildcats finished two runs shy of tying the school's single-game record for runs in a game with 28 (vs. Panhandle State, 1997) in improving to 6-3 on the season; however, junior outfield
Colton Eager tied Matt McGuire's long-standing RBI record from 2007 with eight runs driven in, and became one of several Wildcats with five runs scored.
A native of North Richland Hills, Texas, Eager homered in his first two at-bats, accounting for four RBI as part of a 6-0 lead in the second inning. He then walked with the bases juiced in the seventh, and had three RBI between his two eighth-inning singles.
Eager's final box score line was 4-for-5 with five runs and eight RBI, as he reached base six times in seven plate appearances.
The Wildcats scored their 26 runs off 17 base hits as ACU drew an Arkansas State record 21 walks.
Grayson Tatrow earned four free passes, while seven of his teammates came away with at least two.
And in addition to Eager, multi-hit games were registered by
Cameron Cromer (2),
Eric Wimpee (2),
Tommy Cruz (3) and
Mitchell Dickson (2). Cromer's and Wimpee's hits all came during the Wildcats' wild 11-run eighth inning.
All that run support made an easy winner out of starter
Spencer Chirpich, who whiffed four in 6.0 innings of work. He allowed only three base hits and one unearned run.
Connor Carlton punched our four additional batters in his 2.0 innings of work, and
Nick Norton finished the game.
