ABILENE, Texas -- Joel Wells and Ruben Rivera each delivered two-run singles in the bottom of the eighth inning Thursday evening as No. 7 Abilene Christian rallied for an 8-5 win over Incarnate Word in the first round of the NCAA Division II South Central Region tournament at Crutcher Scott Field on the ACU campus.

The win pushes the Wildcats to 44-16 on the season, while the Cardinals fall to 36-20.  ACU will play either West Alabama or Montevallo at 4 p.m. Friday, while the Cardinals fall into the loser's bracket where they will play Central Oklahoma in a noon elimination game Friday.

The Wildcats were dominated throughout most of the afternoon by Incarnate Word starting pitcher Jeff Jamnik, who at one point retired 14 straight Wildcats.  The Cardinals eventually scored three runs on five hits in the top of the seventh inning to snap a 2-2 tie and take a 5-2 lead.

ACU, though, rallied for a single run in the bottom of the seventh and then set about winning the game in the bottom of the eighth.

Jordan Schmitt led off with a single against Jamnik and then moved to second on Trey Watten's second sacrifice bunt of the day.  Danny Williams singled and then Johnny Zepeda walked to load the bases with one out brining Wells to the plate to face Jamnik.  Wells drove a pitch into centerfield to score Schmitt and Williams with the tying runs.

Wells now has 70 RBI on the season, leaving him five short of tying the single-season school record of 75 set in 1997 by Jerod Hyde.

After the single by Wells, Michael Ruiz came in to pitch and he immediately re-loaded the bases with a walk to Alec Sowards.  Matt McGuire then lifted a sacrifice fly into left field to score Zepeda and give the Wildcats a 6-5 lead.  After a Chris Walsh single re-loaded the bases, Ruben Rivera broke out of a slump with a two-run single through the left side to drive in two runs and give the Wildcats an 8-5 lead.

Rivera then came into the game to pitch the ninth inning and he set the Cardinals down in order to preserve the win and pick up his sixth win of the season.  Chris Wiman got the win in relief of Ben Maynard to improve to 10-4 on the season.  Wiman's 10 wins leave him one short of tying the ACU single-season record for wins (11), a record set by Mark Ferry in 1996 and tied by Grant Gregg in 2001 and Corey Tidwell in 2002.