NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers (11-10, 6-3) hit two homers and brought the winning run to the plate in the ninth but fell 9-6 to the Abilene Christian Wildcats (13-7, 5-4) on Friday evening at Maestri Field.
LATE RALLY
The Privateers entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 9-5. Two one-out walks drawn sent Abilene Christian to the pen for Tanner Riley. After two more walks with two away, the Privateers got the winning run to the plate.
However, Riley was able to get a lineout to end the game and preserve the win for his first save of the year.
BACK AND FORTH EARLY
The two sides traded two-run first innings. Abilene Christian got an RBI sac fly from Brett Hammit and an RBI single by Hunter Gieser to open the scoring.
That lead was short lived though as the Privateers responded with an RBI double from Gaige Howard and an RBI single by Salo Iza.
The Wildcats went back ahead in the second with two runs but the Privateers came right back in the fourth to tie the score at 4-4. Iza’s solo homer and a two-out RBI double from Darren Willis leveled the scoreboard.
Abilene Christian went ahead for good in the fifth. Mitchell Dickson hit a solo homer as part of a two-run inning.
New Orleans plated a run in the fifth on Iza’s first homer of the year and got the tying run to the plate. That’s when Max Huffling came in and recorded two strikeouts to get out of a jam and keep the Wildcats ahead.
NEXT UP
The series continues with a doubleheader that starts at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
{Press release courtesy of UNO Athletics}
