ABILENE - The Abilene Christian baseball team will head north to Lawton, Okla., this weekend for a compressed four-game series in which the Wildcats and Aggies will play a pair of 7.0 and 9.0 inning doubleheaders. Each twin bill is slated to start at 1 p.m. both Friday and Saturday.
Coaches from both sides agreed to shorten the series since severe thunderstorms are predicted for the area on Sunday.
The Wildcats begin their week 20-17 overall and 8-8 against the Lone Star Conference after splitting their fourth-straight series at home last weekend against conference front-runner and 20th-ranked WestTexas A&M. As a result, ACU remains right in the thick of thestandings tied for fourth with Incarnate Word, 3.0 games out of firstand 1.0 out of seventh. Eastern New Mexico currently occupies the basement at 2-14.
Cameron, meanwhile, is 7-9 (18-19 overall) and tied with Tarleton State for sixth after going 2-2 vs. Texas A&M-Kingsville.
Against the Buffaloes, ACU won the bookend games Thursday (10-7) andSaturday (14-4) but fell flat offensively during Friday's doubleheader. The Wildcats were held to a unearned run in game one (L,2-1), and then were nearly no-hit in the night cap (L, 8-0) by Billy Gonzalez. West Texas shortstop Jordan Easom spoiled his pitcher's bid for perfection with a fielding error to start the seventh, and then Gonzalez' no-hitter disappeared when
Michael Cristiani put a ball inplay that was booted by
Tyler Eager as he ran toward second.
Gonzalez, however, remained composed enough to earn the win aftergetting
Kyle Conwell to ground into a game-ending double play. Conwell, overall, had a solid weekend at the plate, going 5 for 15with a triple.
Separate from Friday's efforts, the Wildcats' offense was on target the rest of the weekend and batted .319 overall led by junior Chuck Duarte, who hit .545 with a double, home run, two RBI, and a team-high five runs. Duarte singled and scored a run in games one and two prior to generating a 3 for 4 performance in game four, in which he ignited ACU's comeback from a 3-0 deficit with his third round-tripper of the spring.
Duarte's recent production has pushed him into 14th place among the league's leading hitters with a .342 batting average. His teammate
Duncan Blades is fifth with a .391 average and ranks second with 16 doubles.
Eager continues to lead the LSC in runs scored with 41, and is also among the conference leaders is doubles (12), triples (5), and total bases (72).
Last weekend's victories were earned on the mound by
Clint Cooper and starter
Aaron Lambrix. Cooper made two appearances vs. the Buffaloes and finished with a 0.00 ERA and three strikeouts, while Lambrix punched out four en route to leveling his season record at 3-3.
Cameron is led at the plate by Brad Blumer (.379 - 1 HR - 29 RBI), and Andrew Garcia (.342 - 0 HR - 13 RBI), and has a decent bullpen anchored by Aaron Kleekamp (3.00 ERA - 4 Sv - 12 K) and Cody Hudson (0.87 ERA).
The Aggies defeated ACU earlier in the year, 9-6, at Crutcher Scott Field during a non-conference contest at the Whitten Inn Classic. The Wildcats jumped out to a 3-0 lead, only to see Cameron come back to tie the game before exploding for six runs in the seventh inning.
Information from CameronAggies.com was used in this release.
