MESA, Arizona – ACU collected 20 hits and put up 10 combined runs in the sixth and seventh innings Thursday as the No. 2 seed Wildcats pounded No. 3 seed Utah Valley, 16-7, in the quarterfinal round of the University Credit Union WAC Baseball Tournament at Hohokam Stadium.
The victory pushes the Wildcats (33-23 on the season) into Friday's semifinals where they will play fifth-seeded Tarleton State at 2 p.m. (Central time). The winner of that game moves into Saturday's championship round, while the loser drops into the loser's bracket.
ACU trailed 3-1 before scoring four runs in the third inning to grab a 5-3 lead. The Wildcat lead was 6-4 before the Wolverines answered with three runs in the top of the sixth to grab a 7-6 lead.
That lead was short-lived as ACU scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead and five more in the seventh to put the game away.
Gino D'Alessio hammered the first pitch he saw in the sixth 416 feet for a home run, driving in Ben Greer in front of him to give ACU an 8-7 lead.
Garrett Williams scored on a throwing error to make it 9-7 before
Maddox Miesse scored on an RBI hit by pitch by
Zandt Payne, and D.J. Van Atten scored on a sacrifice fly by
Miller Ladusau to make it an 11-7 game.
ACU salted the game away in the seventh with five more runs as D'Alessio scored on a Williams double for a 12-7 advantage. Miesse drove in Williams with a single, Van Atten followed with a two-run double, and
Aaron Staehely tacked on the final run with a single through the left side to score Van Atten.
The Wildcats tacked on one more hit in the bottom of the eighth as they finished 20 for 40 (.500) at the plate against six UVU pitchers.
"We knew we would have to score runs today," ACU head coach
Rick McCarty said. "Utah Valley probably has the best offense in the league, and they threw some punches early and landed them. But our guys were just relentless at the plate. We had traffic on the bases in just about every inning and kept the pressure on them until we finally broke through late in the game."
ACU freshman
Brett Lanman – the WAC Pitcher and Freshman of the Year – got the start and limited the Utah Valley damage to just four runs in four innings before giving way to
Blaine Palmer. The sophomore righthander from Buffalo Gap loaded the bases in the top of the fifth on a walk and back-to-back hit batters as UVU threatened to cut into ACU's 6-4 lead.
But Palmer got a popout, a strikeout, and a flyout to end the inning as the Wolverines left the bases loaded.
Caden Greanead came in next for ACU and struck out five batters over 1 ⅔ innings of work to earn the win.
Chandler Freeman struck out three and allowed just one hit over the final two innings for the Wildcats.
The Wildcats are now 7-4 all-time in the WAC Tournament and have reached at least the semifinal round in all three appearances. ACU is 9-6 (7-4 in the WAC and 2-2 in the Southland Conference) in postseason tournament play under McCarty since 2021 and has reached at least the semifinals in four straight seasons.
The Wildcats will face No. 5 seed Tarleton State on Friday at noon. The Texans beat No.1 seed Grand Canyon 4-2, making it their third straight win in the WAC Tournament. Loser of Friday's 2 p.m. CT game will play again later on Friday at 10 p.m CT.
