ABILENE – The Abilene Christian baseball team has a chance to reclaim first place in the Lone Star Conference this weekend, but it's going to be tough as they visit a Tarleton State team that has lost just once at home this season.
The big four-game series between the LSC's first and second-place teams starts Friday at 3 p.m. Saturday's doubleheader begins at 2 p.m., while Sunday's first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Tarleton State begins the week at 25-13-1 overall and 14-6 vs. the conference, 1.0 game ahead of the Wildcats, who improved to 25-16 following last weekend's 3-1 series win over Cameron. The Texans, meanwhile, are coming off a split with the defending LSC champions from Angelo State, which enters the penultimate week of the league's regular season tied for third place with Incarnate Word at 11-9.
The Rams play at last-place Cameron this weekend before closing at ACU's Crutcher Scott Field the weekend of April 26-28.
ACU's series win over the Aggies – its sixth of the year and fourth against a conference opponent – did not come easy as the Wildcats had to rebound from a 8-0 loss in game one with a pair of one-run decisions on Saturday.
Senior
Carter Hahn helped ACU even the series at a game apiece with 7.0 brilliant innings of four-hit ball in which he struck out nine to remain the league leader with 75 Ks. And then in game two, the Wildcats scored twice in the seventh to win in walk-off fashion, 4-3, after the Cameron catcher threw the ball wide of third base trying to catch
Mason Smith on the front end of a double steal.
Fortunately, Sunday's win was mostly free of dramatics as the offense scored 12 times on 13 hits and batted around in the fourth and seventh innings.
Kyle Giusti paced the Wildcats' attack with three hits and four RBI that lifted his season total to 36. Only Tarleton State's Alvaro Moreno (42) has more RBI this year than Giusti.
Senior
Travis Schuetze also had a fine week at the plate vs. the Aggies, going 6-for-14 with two stolen bases, while leadoff man
Seth Spivey drove in four runs.
Tarleton State's home series vs. ACU is only its fourth of the year, but the Texans have so far swept Arlington Baptist and Eastern New Mexico at the Cecil Ballow Baseball Complex, while taking three of four from Incarnate Word in building a near-perfect 11-1 home record. On the road, however, TSU is 14-12-1.
The Texans currently own the league's best defense (.975), fourth-highest team batting average (.308) and third-lowest ERA (3.77) thanks to the work of aces Miguel Ramirez (6-1, 2.08), Matt Buckmaster (6-2, 2.35) and Pete Perez (3-1, 2.49).
At the plate, Tarleton is led by Moreno, who is close to leading his club in all the Triple Crown categories with a .377 average, five home runs and 42 RBI. Colten Boothe also has homered five times this season, while the speedy Rustin Thomas has gone deep on four occasions.
Thomas is one four Texans with 10 or more stolen bases this season and is tied for second in the league with five triples. As a team, TSU has stolen 91 bases on 128 attempts, while holding the opposing to 17 thefts on 36 tries.
Earlier this season, the Wildcats lost a non-conference game at home to the Texans, 15-5, during the Whitten Inn Classic. Perez dealt a 7.0-inning complete-game victory with nine strikeouts and kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard until the fourth when
Chuck Duarte singled home
Rodge Macy.
ACU also lost three of four to the Texans at home last season and again at the LSC Championship, but still lead the all-time series, 78-61. The Wildcats won two of three games at TSU during their most recent trip to Stephenville in 2011.
