ABILENE, TEXAS – Four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning propelled Abilene Christian University to a second straight walk off win against the University of the Incarnate Word baseball team. This one ended on a bloop single from Jordan Forrester to give the Wildcats a 9-8 win at Crutcher Scott Field on Friday afternoon.
The Cardinals (19-31, 10-19 SLC) held an 8-1 lead in the seventh inning in what looked like a series tying win for UIW, but three costly errors and eight runs later, the Wildcats secured the Southland Conference series win.
Garret Cooper (Round Rock/McNeil HS) had a strong outing for the Cardinals, but ran into some bad breaks in the seventh inning. He had kept the Wildcats off balance with a great changeup, but a couple of singles strung together brought in four runs and took him out of the ballgame. His final line was 6.1 innings, 12 hits, five runs, one walk and five strikeouts. He was in line to get the win when he left the ballgame.
Cody Richey (Comfort/Comfort HS) pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, allowing only two hits and a walk.
Trevor Hardee (Alvord/Alvord HS) came in for the save and did his job, but four unearned runs cost him and the Cardinals the loss.
The Wildcats (15-35, 13-16 SLC) battled despite being down and got rewarded with the win. Colton Hall and Forrester each had three hits and a run scored, while Forrester had an RBI, the game winner. Tyler Eager extended his hitting streak to nine and finished with two base hits, two RBI's and a run scored.
Joe Gawrieh grabbed the win for ACU pitching 2.0 innings in relief without allowing a hit or a run, walking one and striking out one.
The Cardinals scored eight runs on 11 hits, including a three-run double from
Trey Rodriguez (Corpus Christi/Carroll HS) and a solo home run and three hits from
Austin Hoffman (Goodyear, AZ/Millenium HS).
Christian Divelbiss (Yuba City/Yuba City HS), Hoffman,
Matt Morris (Scottsdale, AZ/Saguaro HS),
Mark Whitehead (San Antonio/Johnson HS) and
Aaron Warren (Schertz/Wagner HS) all collected an RBI in the loss.
The Wildcats totaled 16 hits in the ballgame, all singles, and scored nine runs and committed one error.
The third game of the series will be played Saturday at 1 p.m. instead of the scheduled noon start at Crutcher Scott Field.
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