ACU at Oklahoma State (
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Live ACU Audio I
Live Stats)
ACU vs. East Central (
Live Audio for Saturday and Sunday only I Live Stats:
Friday,
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Sunday)
STILLWATER, Okla. – The ACU Wildcats will continue their busiest stretch of the season this weekend when they take on Oklahoma State in a single game on Thursday before returning home to host East Central in a three-game weekend series at Crutcher Scott Field.
The Wildcats' game against Oklahoma State is scheduled for a 3 p.m. start Thursday at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium in Stillwater, Okla. Thursday's matchup is the first ever on the diamond between the Wildcats and Cowboys and can be heard on 98.1 FM The Ticket.
After the game the Wildcats will head back home where they will find the East Central (Okla.) Tigers awaiting them for a three-game set that is set to start Friday at 6 p.m. Saturday's game will be played at 2 p.m. and Sunday's game is set for a 1 p.m. start. The final two games of the East Central will be broadcast on
acusports.com.
Those four games will mark the end of a stretch that will have seen the Wildcats play 10 games in five different cities in a 12-day span (March 4-16).
The Wildcats are 7-7 on the season after Tuesday's weather-shortened 6-2 loss at Texas Tech. The Wildcats scored a run in the top of the seventh, but the game was stopped by the umpires before the bottom of the seventh began because of a severe wind / dust storm that blew into Lubbock in the sixth inning.
After a seven-minute delay and consultation with weather radar, Texas Tech game event personnel and the two head coaches, the decision was made to call the game and put a premature end to the night.
The Wildcats – 1-3 on the road and 0-2 in neutral-site games – are hitting .292 and have a 4.62 team ERA.
ACU has been led offensively all season by senior catcher
Seth Spivey, who had a seventh-inning double Tuesday against Texas Tech to run his hitting streak to 19 straight games dating back to the end of last season. He had a hit in the last five games of the 2013 season and has a hit in each of the first 14 games of the 2014 season. ACU's record for most consecutive hits is 27 by Mike Elkerson during the 2008 season.
Spivey is hitting .519 on the season and leads the team with 16 runs scored. He leads the Southland conference in batting average (.519), is first in total bases (43), second in hits (28), third in doubles (7), and fourth in runs scored (16). Freshman OF
Brandon Grudzielanek is sixth in the Southland in batting average (.392) and is the only other Wildcat starter hitting better than .300.
Oklahoma State is nationally ranked in three polls. The Cowboys are ranked 15th by Collegiate Baseball, 16th in the USA Today coaches poll and 19th by the NCBWA. On Feb. 24, OSU was ranked 11th by Collegiate Baseball, marking its highest national ranking since it was No. 11 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll on March 16, 2009.
The Cowboys have now been ranked in at least one national poll for 19 consecutive weeks dating back to 2013, when OSU was in the polls for the final 14 weeks of the season. In 2013, the Cowboys peaked at No. 12 in the NCBWA poll on May 20.
The Cowboys enter Thursday's game hitting just .249 as a team, although they have four starters hitting at least .300. Zach Fish leads the club with a .339 batting average, while Donnie Walton is hitting .328. Gage Green (.300) and Dustin Williams (.300) are also hitting at or above .30. Tanner Krietemeier leads the team with four home runs and 14 RBI, but is hitting just .217 on the season.
The pitching staff has a 4.03 ERA and is led by Jon Perrin, who is 2-0 with a 2.29 ERA. The Wildcats will face left-handed freshman Garrett Williams of Lubbock. Williams is 1-0 with a 4.91 ERA on the season. His last appearance was Feb. 28 against Manhattan when he threw three innings and gave up six hits, five runs (four earned) and two walks while striking out one batter.
The Tigers of East Central are off to an 11-10 start after Tuesday's 24-16 win over St. Gregory's in a game that featured 10 different pitchers, 40 runs, 32 hits and a combined nine errors (six by East Central).
East Central is hitting .272 as a team, led by Ethan Gold (.371, 1 HR, 11 RBI) and Andrew Ayrado (.370, 0 HR, 9 RBI). The club's top power hitters are Josh Lavender (.263, 3 HR, 18 RBI) and Garrett Donohoe (.261, 4 HR, 17 RBI).
The team carries a 4.62 ERA and is led by Icezack Flemming, who is 4-3 with a 2.63 ERA and Oscar Gomez, who is 2-0 with a 3.41 ERA.
