PORTALES, N.M. – ACU freshman
Tyler Eager had three hits, scored three runs and drove in a run Friday night as the Wildcats opened a four-game Lone Star Conference baseball series with an 11-8 win over Eastern New Mexico at Greyhound Field.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 17-13 overall and 5-4 in the LSC, while the Greyhounds fall to 9-17 and 0-9. The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday afternoon before wrapping up the series Sunday afternoon.
The Greyhounds actually out-hit the Wildcats, 17-13, but they couldn't get key hits when they needed them as the Greyhounds left 11 runners on base in the game. Four ACU pitchers combined to give up just one walk and strike out 12 Greyhounds and they kept the Greyhounds off the scoreboard in key situations.
ENMU left two runners on base in the fifth, and left the bases loaded in both the sixth and seventh innings.
ACU jumped out to a 3-0 lead through three innings and led 3-1 through four innings before scoring four runs in the fifth and two in the sixth to pull out to a 9-2 lead.
In the fifth, Eager singled to right to drive in
Luke Mejia and advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Kyle Conwell drove in Eager with a single to left, and
Chuck Duarte later drove in a run with an RBI infield single.
In the sixth, the Wildcats scored two runs on two ENMU errors as Eager and Mejia scored would what turn out to be the game-winning runs.
After ENMU scored twice in the sixth the Wildcats answered with a run in the seventh on an RBI single by
Reed Watson to make it 10-5. ENMU scored three runs in the eighth and ACU one in the ninth to make it 11-8 going to the home half of the ninth inning.
Brady Rodriguez – who had entered the game in the bottom of the eighth – set the Greyhounds down in order to secure the win and pick up his first save of the season. Starter
Josh Stone went six innings and struck out seven while walking just one to pick up the win and improve to 4-2 on the season.
