May 13, 2010
Warrensburg, Mo. – Abilene Christian University scored six runs in the third inning to take a lead that they would not relinquish, as they defeated St. Mary’s University, 10-2, on the first day of the NCAA South Central Region Baseball Tournament, Thursday afternoon at Robert N. Tompkins Field.
The Rattlers took the lead in the third inning on Jonathan Cisneros’ (Sr., San Antonio) ninth homerun this season. However, the Wildcats took advantage of two Rattler errors to break the game open in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Cameron Bankston walked and Aaron Oliver followed with a triple to right, tying the game at 1-1. Chris Hall brought home Oliver with a sacrifice fly to give ACU a 2-1 lead. Chris Hall followed with a double to keep the inning alive. That brought up Will Calhoun, who ground a ball to third that went under the glove of Cisneros to score Calhoun. Travis Latz grounded a ball to Weston Baros (Jr., San Antonio), who committed the second straight error of the inning. Will Uechi tripled to right, and Bret Bochsler followed with a homerun to give the Wildcats a 6-1 advantage.
Cisneros cut the Wildcat advantage to 6-2 on an RBI single in the top of the fourth inning, but ACU starting pitcher Cameron Aspaas settled down and held the Rattlers without a hit over the next three innings and the Wildcats pulled away for the win.
Alfonso Maldonado (Sr., Laredo, Texas) fell to 8-6 this season, allowing eight runs, four of which were earned, on nine hits and three walks, while striking out two. Aspaas improved to 7-4 with the victory, holding the Rattlers to two runs on five hits, while striking out seven.
With the loss, St. Mary’s is now 39-18, but has lost its last three games. Abilene Christian improved to 47-13. The Rattlers will face the loser of the University of Central Missouri-University of Nebraska-Omaha game at noon on Friday. The loser of that game will be eliminated from the tournament.
St. Mary’s is home to 13 Academic All-Americans and 225 student-athletes who have earned regional or national academic awards. St. Mary’s student-athletes graduation rate is 63 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent.
Abilene Christian 10, St. Mary’s 2 (May 13, 2010 at Warrensburg, Mo.)
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St. Mary’s (Texas).. 001 100 000 – 2 6 2 (39-18)
Abilene Christian… 006 011 02X – 10 10 1 (47-13)
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Pitchers: St. Mary’s (Texas) – A. Maldonado; C. Behrend(6); E. DeLaChica(8) and Ryan Morrow. Abilene Christian – C. Aspaas; R. McCabe(7); J. Crockett(8); B.Rutherford(9) and Ian Tomkins.
Win-C. Aspaas(7-4) Loss-A. Maldonado(8-6) T-2:26 A-125
HR StMU – J. Cisneros (9).
HR ACU – A. Oliver (12); B. Bochsler (9).