Baseball — Demons drop series finale at Abilene Christian

ABILENE, Texas – The Northwestern State baseball team stung hard-hit ball after hard-hit ball Sunday afternoon in its series finale at Abilene Christian.

The majority of those balls, however, did not find their way through a cool, stiff West Texas wind at Crutcher Scott Field. The tough luck, combined with a pair of three-run innings by the host Wildcats, added up to a 6-2 loss in the rubber game of the Southland Conference series.

“What I told them after the game – this game was baseball,” third-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. “We hit some balls hard and weren’t very fortunate. Friday night’s game, we didn’t compete very well. That’s how you win on the road, you compete all three games. We played well enough to win today. We could have done much better, but the series could have been won on Friday and Saturday. That’s what we have to learn as a team, to come out and compete every single day.”

After being held to four hits Friday night, the Demons (7-6, 1-2) managed just three in Sunday’s series finale. Two of those came from Caleb Ricca, who put the Demons on the board seven pitches into the game with his second home run in as many days, a solo shot to right field.

That was about all the Demons mustered against Jonathan Nicholson (2-1), who scattered three hits across seven innings, striking out seven.

The Wildcats (9-7, 2-1) answered Ricca’s home run with a three-run first inning, as Luis Trevino followed Dalon Farkas’ leadoff triple with a two-run home run.

A Seth Watts RBI single off the right-field wall extended the lead against Nathan Jones (1-1) before Jones settled in and silenced the Wildcats for the next five innings.

After Derek Scott’s two-out double in the second inning, Jones retired the final 13 batters he faced. By working six innings, Jones moved into ninth on Northwestern State’s all-time innings pitched list at 242.

“I thought Nathan was really good,” Barbier said. “He got into some trouble in the first, but he was able to settle the game down. He’s still on a tight pitch count, so to get us through six innings is unbelievable. He struck out seven and walked none. You can’t ask for anything more than that.”

Brennan Lewis’ two scoreless innings of relief gave him his fourth save and clinched the series for Abilene Christian, which tacked on three eighth-inning insurance runs on a two-out Robert Salazar single and Seth Watts’ first home run of the season.

Northwestern State returns to action Tuesday when it hosts LSU at 6 p.m. in the first of a five-game homestand.

Abilene Christian 6, Northwestern State 2

NSU       100 010 000 – 2 3 1

ACU       300 000 03x – 6 9 0

W – Jonathan Nicholson (2-1). L – Nathan Jones (1-1). S – Brennan Lewis (4). 2B – ACU, Derek Scott 2. 3B – ACU, Dalon Farkas. HR – NSU, Caleb Ricca (2). ACU, Luis Trevino (4), Seth Watts (1). Highlights: NSU, Ricca 2-3, HR, RBI. ACU, Scott 3-4, 2 2B; Watts 2-4, HR, 3 RBIs: Trevino HR, 2 RBIs.

Records: Northwestern State 7-6, 1-2; Abilene Christian 9-7, 2-1.