WEATHERFORD, Okla. -- The ninth-ranked ACU Wildcats rebounded from Sunday's disappointing loss at Southwestern Oklahoma State to take a pair of easy wins on Monday en route to a Lone Star Conference series at SWOSU Park.
The Wildcats took the first game 7-1 and then came back in the nightcap to win 12-0. The two wins push the Wildcats to 40-10 on the season as ACU won at least 40 games for the 12th time since 1998. The Wildcats (40-10 overall and 27-8 in the LSC) will return to action Tuesday at 3:35 p.m. when they host Texas-Permian Basin in a single game at Crutcher Scott Field.
Monday's two wins means the Wildcats need just one win this weekend against Tarleton State -- or one Southeastern Oklahoma State loss at East Central -- to wrap up the LSC regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed for the LSC Post-Season Tournament, which will be played May 1-4 at Crutcher Scott Field. ACU will host Tarleton State this weekend in the regular season's final series.
The Wildcats got to within one win of the regular-season title with a dominant display of pitching and offense on Monday.
In the first game, three Wildcat pitchers combined to strike out seven batters, scatter seven hits over seven innings and allow just one run.
Zach Sneed went four innings to pick up the win and improve to 8-0 before giving way to
Josh Crockett (two innings) and closer
Brad Rutherford (one inning) to finish it out.
The ACU offense -- which had struggled a bit in its previous seven games -- got on the board in the second with three runs on an RBI single by
Clint Bowker and a two-run single by
Aaron Oliver.
Chris Hall drove in a run when he reached on an error in the fourth, and
Ryan Luckie finished off the scoring in the top of the seventh with a three-run triple to make it 7-1.
The Wildcats really got their bats going in the second game as they put up 12 runs on 12 hits. The top three hitters in the lineup -- Oliver, Willie Uechi and Will Calhoun -- each drove in three runs. Oliver had two hits and scored twice, Uechi had two hits and one run scored and Calhoun was 3 for 6.
ACU scored twice in the first on an RBI single by Calhoun and RBI fielder's choice by Bret Bochsler. The Wildcats pushed their lead to 4-0 in the fourth on an RBI triple by Oliver and and RBI single by Uechi.
ACU starting pitcher
Aaron Lambrix made those four runs look huge with his effort. He allowed just three hits and walked just two batters while striking out four Bulldogs in a seven-inning effort. He finally gave way to
Chay Lytle for the eighth and
Jordan Hartley for the ninth, but Lambrix picked up the win to improve to 7-0 on the season.
The Wildcats pulled away in the eighth and ninth innings, scoring five times in the eighth and three times in the ninth.
Ian Tomkins had an RBI double in the eighth, followed by a two-run single by Uechi.
In the ninth, Hall drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Calhoun later added a two-run single to cap the day's scoring.
