MESA, Arizona – The ACU Wildcats' season came to a bitter end Friday night in the desert, one win away from playing a conference title and a spot in an NCAA Division I regional tournament.
The Wildcats beat Utah Valley, 16-7, Thursday in their first game of the University Credit Union WAC Baseball Tournament, then watched top-seeded Grand Canyon University lose twice Thursday. That left ACU as the top remaining seed (No. 2) in the tournament at Hohokam Stadium.
ACU needed one win Friday and one win Saturday to win the league and earn the program's first postseason bid as an NCAA Division I program. But it wasn't to be for the Wildcats, who ran into the league's two hottest teams in No. 5 seed Tarleton State and No. 4 seed California Baptist.
The Wildcats were run-ruled by Tarleton, 11-1, Friday morning, and then lost a 7-6 heartbreaker late Friday evening to No. 4 seed California Baptist in an elimination game. Tarleton and CBU will play Saturday for the league championship with CBU having to beat the Texans twice to keep Tarleton from claiming the league championship.
Tarleton State, however, can't advance to the NCAA postseason because it is in its final year of transition from NCAA Division II status to NCAA Division I affiliation. If the Texans win the title, Grand Canyon – the regular-season champion – will earn the WAC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Here's a recap of ACU's two games on Friday:
Tarleton State 11, ACU 1
The Texans used a seven-run fifth inning in the first game of tournament play Friday morning to advance to Saturday's championship round and push ACU into the loser's bracket. ACU trailed the Texans 3-1 going into the fifth before Tarleton put the game away.
Two runs scored on bases-loaded hit batters, two scored on an Ike Shirey single, and three others scored on RBI singles by Cole Miears, Kooper Shook, and Mason Hammonds.
Tarleton State pitching limited ACU to just six hits in the seven-inning game, one of those a solo home run in the fourth by
Aaron Staehely that plated ACU's only run.
California Baptist 7, ACU 6
Cal Baptist used a three-run third inning to take the lead and a pinch-hit home run by Jake Skipworth in the bottom of the eighth to take on a key insurance run as the Lancers eliminated the Wildcats.
ACU scored four times in the third inning to take a 5-2 lead as
Gino D'Alessio,
Garrett Williams, and
Maddox Miesse drove in runs and Miesse scored on a passed ball. But the Lancers answered in the bottom of the inning with three runs and then added an RBI groundout by Garret Ostrander in the bottom of the fourth to take a 6-5 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, Skipworth cranked a two-out solo home run down the left field line for what would turn out to be the game-winning run. ACU scored a run in the top of the ninth on an RBI single by D'Alessio, a base hit that put the tying run on third (Ben Greer) and the go-ahead run at first.
But Williams popped out to second base on the first pitch he saw from reliever Lukas Pirko to end the game.
ACU finishes the season 33-25, the program's fourth straight 30-win season under head coach
Rick McCarty.
