ABILENE -- The ACU Wildcats scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning Thursday night as they opened a four-game Lone Star Conference baseball series against No. 20 West Texas A&M with a 10-7 win over the Buffaloes at Crutcher Scott Field.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 19-15 overall and 7-6 in the LSC, while the Buffaloes drop to 22-9 and 9-3. The teams will continue the series Friday with a 2 p.m. doubleheader at Scott Field.
The Wildcats and Buffs battled through 7 1/2 see-saw innings with the teams exchanging the lead seven times before ACU finally broke through with the three key runs in the eighth.
With the game tied at 7-7,
Duncan Blades led off the eighth with a walk and then m oved to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Chuck Duarte.
Kevin Finklea then delivered in the clutch when he drove an 0-2 pitch into right field to score Blades with the go-ahead and eventual game-winning run.
Finklea then moved to second base on a wild pitch and then scored an insurance run on a
Reed Watson single. After a pitching change,
Emmett Niland walked and then
Luke Mejia drove a 3-2 pitch just past the second baseman into right field for a single that drove in Watson to make it 10-7.
Clint Cooper - who entered the game with nobody out and two runners on in the top of the seventh - gave up a leadoff single in the top of the ninth, but settled down to Kendall Boone to ground out on a 3-2 pitch, Jordan Easom to line out to Blades at third and Parker Wood to fly out to Watson in right field to end the game.
The Buffs jumped on top 2-0 in the first, but ACU came back with three runs of its own in the bottom of the inning with two coming in on a double to left-centerfield by Finklea.
After WT regained the lead with two runs in the top of the second, ACU tied it in the bottom of the third with a run on an RBI triple by
Kyle Conwell. The Buffs broke the tie with a run in the fifth, but ACU came back to take a 7-5 lead with three runs in the sixth.
Mejia, freshman
Michael Cristiani and Blades all drove in runs for the Wildcats in the inning.
But the Buffs rallied for two runs in the seventh - both charged to ACU starting pitcher
Brady Rodriguez - to knot the game at 7-7, setting up the bottom of the eighth for the Wildcats.
Conwell finished 3 for 5 with an RBI, while Blades was 3 for 4 with two runs scored and two RBI. Finklea had two hits and three RBI, while Watson had three hits and an RBI and Mejia had two hits and two RBI from the No. 9 spot in the lineup.
Cooper picked up the win for the Wildcats, pitching three innings of three-hit, scoreless relief to improve to 5-2 on the season.
