Wildcats knock off Hilltoppers

Tuesday, February 22

Austin, TX

2 pm

Abilene Christian

St. Edward's

Photo by: Jeremy Enlow

2/22/2011 5:20:00 PM | Baseball

AUSTIN – No. 23 ACU scored four runs in their last two at-bats Tuesday afternoon to break open a tight game on their way to a 6-2 win over St. Edward's in college baseball action at Lucian-Hamilton Field.

The Wildcats' fifth straight win pushes them to 5-2 on the season, while the Hilltoppers fall to 4-3. ACU will be back in action this weekend with a Lone Star Conference series in Durant, Okla., against Southeastern Oklahoma State.

Leading 2-1 going to the eighth, the Wildcats scored a run in their half of the inning when Bryce Gerhardt stole third and scored on a throwing error by St. Edward's catcher Kyle Harris.

In the ninth, Reed Watson scored on a wild pitch before Cameron Bankston scored on an RBI single by Sky Valenzuela to make it 5-1. Will Calhoun then delivered an RBI single to drive in Aaron Oliver to make it 6-1.

Kris Karlson pitched two innings of two-hit baseball to pick up his third save of the season. Calhoun got the win to improve to 3-0, throwing three innings in a pre-determined three-inning start. He was relieved by Brady Rodriguez, who went two innings and gave up just one hit while striking out three Hilltoppers. Five Wildcat pitchers struck out seven Hilltoppers on the day.

St Edward's, meanwhile, used 10 pitchers and those 10 pitchers struck out 10 Wildcats, but also issued seven walks and hit one batter.