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Contributed by Lance Fleming, ACU Associate Director of Athletics for Media Relations
ABILENE - Needing one win to capture their first Southland Conference series win since early March, ACU senior righthanded pitcher Kyle Carroll made sure the Wildcats would get it with a dominating effort Saturday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Carroll pitched his finest game of the season, scattering six hits and not walking a batter in a complete-game shutout of the Islanders in a 4-0 ACU win at Crutcher Scott Field. The Wildcats' second straight 4-0 win in the series helped them win the series, 2-1, bouncing back from an 11-4 loss in Friday's series-opener.
The Wildcats jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one inning and Carroll dominated from there, retiring each of the first nine men he faced and allowing just one hit and one baserunner through the first six innings. He got out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh after three straight softly hit two-out singles, and then allowed just two meaningless singles in the final two innings.
"We got Kyle a nice lead with those three runs in the first and then he went out and did what a senior is supposed to do and that's work quickly and throw strikes," ACU head coach Britt Bonneau said. "We got two really good pitching performances from two seniors (Aaron Mason threw eight innings of shutout baseball in Friday night's 4-0 win). They gave us a chance to win and we took advantage in both games."
ACU wasted little time jumping on Corpus Christi starting pitcher Aaron Hernandez, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Aaron Draper and Hunter Markwardt led off with back-to-back walks before Russell Crippen singled to left field to drive in Draper to make it a 1-0 game.
Heath Beasley then laid down what should have been a sacrifice bunt. But Hernandez fielded the ball and tried to cut down Markwardt at third base. But he threw the ball over the head of his third baseman, Cullen Jozwiak, down into the left field corner, allowing Markwardt and Crippen to score to make it a 3-0 game.
That was all for Hernandez, who was lifted in favor of Chris Cooper, who worked the next five innings, allowing one run and two hits in those five innings. Markwardt led off the third inning with a drag bunt single and went to second on a hit-and-run groundout by Crippen. After a stolen base moved him to third, Markwardt scored on an RBI single by Beasley to make it a 4-0 game.
Carroll (3-5) needed no other help as he threw up zero after zero, mowing through the Corpus lineup with ease. He ran into his only bit of trouble in the seventh when the Islanders got those three runners on base with two outs. Carroll, however, coaxed a popout to shortstop Mark Pearson out of Brian Deaver, and that was the last best chance for the Islanders to get a run on the board.
Carroll's complete-game shutout performance matches the one that Mason threw last weekend against Houston Baptist in ACU's 9-0 and stretches the scoreless innings streak posted by the ACU pitching staff to 21 straight innings.
The Wildcats are now 13-21 overall and 5-10 in the Southland Conference and will take on No. 10 TCU at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in a non-conference game at Crutcher Scott Field.
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