ABILENE – Abilene Christian posted 11 runs on 10 hits but couldn't hold off UT Arlington on Friday, falling 12-11.
UTA took an early 1-0 lead but the Wildcats scored four in the first inning on back-to-back home runs by
Gino D'Alessio and
DJ Van Atten and a third home run by
Zandt Payne., D'Alessio's home run was a two-run shot.
UTA got a run back in the second but ACU added five in the third.
Caden Matlon had an RBI single,
Maddox Miesse added a two-run double,
Jack Nielsen tacked on an RBI ground out and
Holden Rook added a sacrifice fly for a 9-2 lead.
ACU went up 10-2 in the fourth on an RBI double by Payne.
UTA scored three in the fifth and two in the sixth to start its comeback.
The Wildcats made it an 11-7 game in the sixth on D'Alessio's second home run of the game.
The Mavericks scored four in the seventh and got the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth.
ACU had one baserunner in the last two frames and couldn't push across the tying run.
Payne ended the game with three hits, D'Alessio had two and Van Atten, Matlon, Miesse, Rook and
Aaron Staehely had one each.
All five ACU pitchers were charged with at least one run with
Brett Garcia being tagged with the loss. Garcia allowed one run on one hit with four strikeouts over 2.1 innings.
The teams are scheduled to play at 3:05 p.m. on Saturday, weather permitting.
