A wild 7-3 victory by the Brazos Valley Bombers over the Acadiana Cane Cutters on Friday night at Brazos Valley Bank Ballpark put the Bombers in the wild-card lead for the upcoming Texas Collegiate League playoffs.

The Bombers surprisingly rocked Acadiana relief pitcher Chris Cotton for four runs in the eighth inning. The left-handed Cotton, who will be a junior at LSU, had an 0.30 earned run average in 30 innings with 26 strikeouts and only four walks.

John Cannon, Kevin Wirth, Cameron Sherrer and Herbert Romero strung together one-out singles to give the Bombers a 5-3 lead. Scott Arthur added a sacrifice fly and Trey Porras an RBI single as the Bombers batted around.

"That's the hardest I've seen Cotton hit," Bombers coach Brent Alumbaugh said.

The explosion settled one of the most exciting games of the season.

Acadiana (24-25) twice wiped out Bombers leads, each time taking advantage of errors. Bombers second baseman Wirth couldn't handle a potential inning-ending double-play grounder in the seventh that scored Adam Seal, who had doubled and moved to third on Joshua Burris' single.

The Bombers answered with two runs, but pesky Acadiana tied it again in the eighth. Acadiana's Caleb Clowers reached on a two-out error by Bombers' third baseman Arthur. Seal and Thomas Simoneaux followed with singles, and Burris walked to force in a run. That was it for starting pitcher Jake Moser, who allowed only six hits with eight strikeouts in a strong performance. Relief pitcher Logan Burch promptly walked Mike Barba to force in the tying run before getting Grant Dozar to ground out.

The Bombers' hitters treated Cotton much tougher, topping off a 14-hit effort that overshadowed four fielding errors

"We're a real contagious group," Alumbaugh said. "When one person is going well, it seems like everyone catches fire, especially there in the eighth. That was big for our offense to come through."

The Bombers have won three straight to overtake the Victoria Generals in the battle for the fourth and final playoff spot. The Generals took three out of four from the Bombers for a two-game lead in the wild-card battle that came about because first-half winner East Texas is also winning the second half. The Coppell Copperheads (14-8) and Generals (13-12) are battling for second place and an automatic playoff spot with the other team left to battle the Bombers in a wild-card tiebreaker that is determined by overall record.

There's five games left in the regular season with the Bombers (26-28) and Generals (25-29) scheduled to end the season against each other Wednesday and Thursday at Brazos Valley Bank Ballpark. The Generals currently hold the tiebreaker on the Bombers in the event of a tie with a 6-4 lead in the season series.

Acadiana, an expansion team, earned the runner-up spot in the first half by beating the Bombers in the final two games. The Cane Cutters had a good tune-up for the playoffs Friday night.

The Bombers took a 1-0 lead in the first on back-to-back two-out walks to Greg Olson and Brad Porras to force in Romero, who had singled and moved to second on Brennyn Smith's two-out single.

Acadiana starting pitcher Kaleb Manuel rebounded to blank the Bombers until the seventh, though many were surprised he was still in the game. No starting pitcher can start an inning after throwing 100 pitches. The Bombers coaching staff had Manuel at 102 pitches after six. The official scorer had him at 103 and the radio announcer had him at 106. The Canes coaching staff had him at 92.

It seemed to work to the Bombers' benefit when Smith ripped a two-out, two-run single into left field to break the 1-1 tie. Smith, however, was thrown out trying to advance to second when the throw home was cutoff. The umpire counted the last run, even though everyone in the pressbox thought the trail runner was 3-4 steps from reaching home plate when Smith was tagged out. However, no Cane Cutter argued the call, though Acadiana head coach Mike Byrnes had come out twice previously and politely argued fair and foul calls that went against the Cane Cutters.

That became a moot point in the wild eighth.

Smith led the Bombers with a 4-for-5 game. He leads the team with 34 RBIs. He had two hits Thursday night, including a two-run single in an 8-7 victory over Alexandria.

"I got a few pitches I could handle tonight," Smith said. "They were working me inside, and with men in scoring position, that's where you want pitches to be. I got lucky and found a few holes."

Acadiana 000 000 120 -- 3 7 2

BV Bombers 100 000 24x -- 7 14 4

Kaleb Manuel, Chris Cotton (8) and Grant Dozar. Jake Moser, Logan Burch (8), Garrett Shepperd (9) and John Cannon. W -- Burch (2-0). L -- Cotton (3-1). Leading hitters -- (A) Adam Seal 2-3; Joshua Burris 2-3, RBI; (BV) Brennyn Smith 4-5, 2 RBIs; Scott Arthur 2-4, RBI; Herbert Romero 2-5; Trey Porras 2-5, RBI.