Box Score SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word baseball team opened up their three-game series with visiting Southland Conference rival Abilene Christian with a nice, 9-6 win behind a stellar pitching performance from Jacob Potts (Glendale, AZ/Browne HS).

Potts required just 73 pitches to toss 7.0 shutout innings en route to earning his third win of the season.  He scattered four hits and did not walk a single batter while striking out five.

"That was more than we were expecting," said UIW head coach Dan Heep when asked about Potts.  "He was coming off short rest so we were expecting maybe four innings, but he didn't throw a lot of pitches and he threw strikes.  That was one of his best outings this year and it was good to see him do that."

Potts was coming off a four inning relief performance on Sunday, but breezed through the Wildcat (17-31, 6-16) lineup with his longest outing of the year.  He closed out his season by not allowing an earned run in his final 11 innings.

The Cardinals (16-32, 7-15) took the lead in the second inning and never looked back.  Freshman shortstop Bryce Shepherd (Coldspring/Coldspring/Oakhurst HS) put the team on the board with a double off the left field wall in the second to drive in a run.  William Triebes followed with a two-run single to give UIW a 3-0 lead.

The score remained 3-0 until the sixth inning when the ACU pitching staff suddenly could not find the plate.  With two outs in the sixth, the Cardinals drew five consecutive walks to score a pair of runs.  In the seventh inning they drew four more walks and Shepherd capped off the four-run inning with a two-run single.

The Wildcats mounted a comeback in the final two innings.  They scored three times, including two unearned runs in the eighth inning.  In the ninth inning, they rallied for three more runs, all with two outs, before Gunnar Buhner flied out to right field to end the game.

The Cardinals finished with nine hits and drew nine walks in the game.  Shepherd went 2-for-4 with four RBI's, a double and a run scored.  Dustin Cole (Tomball/Tomball HS) was 2-for-3 with two RBI's and Ethan McGill (Penn Valley, CA/Nevada Union HS) scored three times.

The Wildcats had seven hits in the game with Emil Litterer and Colton Hall each getting a pair of hits.  Russell Crippen went 1-for-3 with two RBI's and two runs.  Brady Rodriguez was handed the loss for ACU allowing six hits, five runs and four walks in 5.2 innings.

The teams will continue their series on Friday at 3 p.m.
####
pr14297smm