Friday May 27th Abilene Christian 9 Lamar 4 FINAL

[snakehead26]

No surprise here as Lamar eliminated from tournament.

[KF89]

  ACU advances to Friday night with win over Lamar

Trailing 3-0 after an inning and a half, the ACU baseball team did not panic. Instead, they answered to take the lead in the fourth inning, and never looked back. The No. 4 Wildcats (28-28) advance to Friday night after a 9-4 victory over No. 2 seed Lamar at Hohokam Stadium, and will now play top-seeded Grand Canyon for the second time in the tournament. ACU got a great starting outing from 

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, and the offense matched it with a 10-hit game. 

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 finished it off and it is off to the nightcap at the WAC Tournament.

How It Happened
- For the first time in the tournament, ACU was not the first team to put runs on the board. Lamar scored two in the top of the first inning with a triple to right center field, and the Wildcats were down early. No need to worry, though.
- The Cardinals hit a solo home run to open the second inning, but after that, Stephenson settled in, retiring the next five batters and not allowing another run in his five innings.
- ACU, down 3-0, went to work. After loading the bases and striking out, 

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 stepped in, and despite the big first baseman also swinging and missing, the ball got away on a wild pitch, allowing 

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 to score the first run of the game for the 'Cats.
- ACU, the home team on the scoreboard for the first time in the tournament, took a lead they would not give up in the fourth inning. 

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 doubled down the right field line to score 

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, and two batters later, Gieser had the swing of the day, driving a ball to the gap in right center field, scoring two, and ending up with a triple. It gave ACU a 4-3 lead.
- The inning wasn't over. 

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 drove in Gieser with a sacrifice fly, and the 'Cats led 5-3 after four.
- Neither team scored again until the seventh, when ACU extended its lead. 

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 launched his first career post-season home run with a solo shot to left center in the home seventh, and it followed with 

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 reaching on a sacrifice bunt that turned into a throwing error, allowing Cruz to score. 

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 then capped off the inning with a double down the right-field line to score two more, and it was a 9-3 lead.
- Lamar added one more in the top of the ninth with a sacrifice fly, but that was it, and ACU held on for the 9-4 victory.

Stat Pack
- Stephenson got the win, going five innings of strong baseball, allowing three earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts.
- 

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 was tremendous out of the bullpen, throwing a four-inning save, allowing one run, unearned, on just one hit with four strikeouts. The save is Sells' second of the season.
- Of ACU's 10 hits, it was Ladusau who led the way with three. The Wildcat left fielder also scored twice.
- Cruz and Tweedt each tallied two hits, and Tweedt drove in a pair.
- Gieser drove in two with his double, and scored a run as well.

Beyond the Box Score
- Cruz has now reached base nine times in the last two days of the tournament.
- Friday marked the seventh meeting this season against Lamar. The Wildcats took two-out-of-three against the Cardinals in Beaumont in early April, but it was Lamar who swept ACU in May at Crutcher Scott Field. The season series is now 4-3 in favor of Lamar, but the 'Cats got the biggest win in the series.
- ACU is now 2-0 in post-season games against Lamar. The Wildcats won 7-1 in the opening game of the 2021 Southland Tournament.
- The save for Sells is just the sixth save of the year for ACU.
- Sells' season ERA is down to 1.87, the lowest on the Wildcat staff.
- Friday marked the 33rd time this season ACU tallied at least 10 hits in a game.

On Deck
- The Wildcats have now worked their way back on the consolation side of the bracket, and will get their rematch with top-seeded Grand Canyon. It is the consolation semifinal game, and it is slated to begin at 9 p.m. CT / 7 p.m. PT, and airs on ESPN+.
 

[KF89]

Cards Season Ends on Third Day of Tournament

James Dixon, Assistant AD/Media Relations

The best season for Lamar University baseball since 2013 came to an end Friday afternoon with a 9-4 setback to Abilene Christian at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz. The loss puts an end to a year that saw LU post a 37-21 record, and just miss a WAC Divisional title by one game with a 20-10 conference record.
 
Big Red jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but ACU answered with nine-straight runs before the Cardinals could get back on the board. The Cardinals made the most of their four hits scoring four runs with two errors, while ACU plated nine runs on 10 hits with an error.
 

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, 

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, 

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 and 

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 each recorded a hit on the day, with Blankenship and Durand each driving in two.
 
Senior 

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 got the start and went 3.1 innings for the Cardinals allowing three earned runs on three hits with four strikes. When Buckendorff exited the game in the fourth inning he left with a one run lead but a four-run fourth and seventh from the Wildcats was too much for the Red and White to overcome.
 
The Cardinals wasted little time Friday getting the scoring started. With two outs and runners at the corner, Blankenship took an 0-2 pitch deep to right center getting it just beyond the outstretched arm of the right fielder. The hit scored both runners as Blankenship went racing into the third with his second triple of the season. Classmate 

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 made it a 3-0 lead for the Cardinals in the second inning when he led off the inning with a no doubter to right field for his third blast of the season.
 
ACU managed to get one back in their half of the second inning but the result could've been worse. The Wildcats had the bases loaded with no outs but Buckendorff worked his way out of traffic with two strikeouts. Unfortunately, the Wildcats' lone run of the inning came off one of the strikeouts as the pitch got away from the catcher.
 
The score remained 3-1 until the bottom of the fourth when the Wildcats struck for four runs on three hits and took advantage of an LU error to claim their first lead of the game, 5-3. ACU made it a six-run lead with four more runs in their half of the seventh.
 
The Cardinals managed to get one-run back on a sacrifice fly to score 

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 who led off the ninth by reaching on an error and advancing to third on two wild pitches.

[Chester86]

Hopefully they’ll have a new coach next year.