Gray Homers Twice as Wildcats Score 12 Unanswered in Win Over Lobos

Friday, March 20

Albuquerque, N.M.

7 p.m. (CT)

Abilene Christian

11-11

New Mexico

14-8

Abilene Christian

New Mexico

Photo by: Kaylee Kahn

Gray Homers Twice as Wildcats Score 12 Unanswered in Win Over Lobos

3/20/2026 11:54:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Luke White

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Brady Gray clobbered a pair of home runs to power Abilene Christian baseball to a 12-5 win over New Mexico at Lobo Baseball Field on Friday night. After falling behind early, the Wildcats rattled off 12 unanswered runs to pick up their first road victory of the season.

ACU can clinch the series when the teams return to action at 3 p.m. (CT) Saturday.

The Wildcats trailed 4-0 entering the fifth inning before Gray got them on the board with a solo shot. ACU scored 11 runs in the final four innings, with Gray delivering the knockout punch with a three-run blast off the right-field foul pole in the ninth. He drove in five runs and raised his home run total to four this season.

Brady Ladusau went 2 for 5 and drove in a pair of runs with a sixth-inning RBI double and a game-tying RBI single in the seventh. He has seven hits in his last three games following a 3-for-4 effort versus Incarnate Word on Wednesday.

Diego Cardenas hammered his conference-leading 11th long ball of the season, a two-run homer in the eighth that pushed ACU ahead, 9-4. He supplied the go-ahead run in the seventh when he scored on a wild pitch in the seventh.

With a 3-for-4 effort, Zandt Payne reached base safely for the 16th game in a row and notched his team-leading 10th multi-hit performance of the season. He also paces the Wildcats with eight multi-run games after coming home three times on Friday.

At 2 for 5, JT Thompson was the fourth Wildcat with multiple hits. He and Cardenas have each notched a hit in five straight games.

Brett Lanman was credited with his first victory of the season, allowing three earned runs with six strikeouts in six innings of work. Freshman Baron Mannis closed out the final three innings of the win for the first save of his career. He struck out five batters.

New Mexico grabbed a 4-0 advantage through four innings before Gray's solo homer got ACU rolling. Payne and Ryan Jones singled in the fifth ahead of Ladusau's RBI ground-rule double. Then, with the bases loaded, Gray was hit by a pitch to plate a run and make it a 4-3 ballgame.

The Wildcats tipped the scales in their favor in the seventh inning after three straight walks loaded the bases. Ladusau knotted the score at 4 with an RBI single before Cardenas raced home on a wild pitch to move ACU in front, 5-4. Gavin Brzozowski's RBI groundout and Thompson's RBI double provided two key insurance runs at 7-4.

Cardenas delivered a two-out, two-run home run in the eighth after Payne kept the inning alive with a single. Braden Regala and Thompson singled to begin the ninth inning, setting the stage for Gray's second big fly of the night to close out the scoring.