Tarleton bats stay hot as they clinch series with ACU, win 6th straight

ABILENE – The Tarleton Texans put constant pressure on Abilene Christian at the plate as they hit their way to a sixth straight, series clinching, 12-6 win over ACU at Crutcher Scott Field Saturday.

The Texans (9-12, 5-3 WAC) put runners on base in eight of nine innings, loading the base paths and making the ACU (11-11, 4-4 WAC) pitchers work hard to try and keep them at bay.

The top of the lineup did almost all of the damage as Alec Williams (3), Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo (4) and Kemuel Thomas-Rivera (3) combined for 10 RBI.

Williams stretched his streak of reaching base safely to 20 straight games as he had four hits on the day to push him to 30 on the season, a team-high. London Green pushed his hit streak to 10 consecutive games with a double to right field in the top of the third.

The teams traded blows all game as there were six lead changes. That ended in the top of the eighth inning when Tarleton came to the plate trailing 6-5.

ACU hit Corey Young to start the inning off, one of six Texans to get hit by a pitch Saturday. Colby Seltzer followed that up with a walk and Williams singled to second base to load the bases.

Choy Foo singled to left field to score Young and Seltzer and put the Texans back on top 7-6 with one out. ACU made its second pitching change of the inning following another hit batter, this time Spencer Bloom.

The following at-bat Thomas-Rivera hit a bases clearing double to left center field to break the game open, giving Tarleton a 10-6 lead. They pushed two more runs across in the ninth for insurance thanks to two more hits off the bats of Williams and Choy Foo.

Landon Cody (1-0) earned the win, throwing 1.2 scoreless innings. Tarleton starting pitcher Riley Boyd pitched 3.0 innings allowing four runs on five hits, striking out two. Freshman Jake Burcham pitched the final 2.0 frames for the Texans, allowing only two hits and no runs, striking out two to ensure the victory.

The two teams will play the series finale on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. CT with Tarleton looking for its second straight series sweep. It will be streamed on ESPN+.