Baseball | 3/16/2015 4:12:00 PM
ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats get one of their busiest weeks of the season started Tuesday when they host Alabama A&M in the first game of a short two-game series at Crutcher Scott Field.
The Wildcats and Bulldogs will play a single game Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., followed by the series finale at 2 p.m. Wednesday. ACU will then return to Southland Conference play Friday at 6 p.m. when it hosts McNeese State in the first game of a three-game series. Saturday's game against the Cowboys will be played at 2 p.m., followed by the series finale at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Each of the two games against Alabama A&M and the the final two games of the McNeese State series will be broadcast online only at
www.acusports.com. None of the games will be on the radio this weekend, but each of the four games online will have
audio / video, and all five games will be available on
live stats.
The Wildcats enter the series against Alabama A&M at 2-13 overall and 2-4 in the Southland Conference after dropping two of three games last weekend at Southeastern Louisiana. After dropping the first game on Friday, ACU scored seven runs in the top of the ninth inning Saturday to win 9-2, before dropping the final game of the series on Sunday, 11-0, in a run-rule-shortened game.
ACU's pitching staff enters Tuesday's game with a respectable 4.52 ERA that becomes even better when taking out the team's four worst outings. When not counting the two losses to Southeastern Louisiana and the two season-opening losses to Nevada, the Wildcats' team ERA is 2.78 in the team's other 11 games.
In 15 games this season, the Wildcats have allowed 67 earned runs in 133 1/3 innings of work with 36 of those earned runs coming in 33 innings of work in those four games against Southeastern and Nevada. When taking those four games out, ACU has allowed just 31 earned runs in 100 1/3 innings of work.
Austin Lambright (0-1, 5.62 ERA) will get the start Tuesday against Alabama A&M, while
Joe Gawrieh (0-2, 8.38 ERA) will get the start on Wednesday. For the weekend, ACU will go with
Garrett deMeyere (1-2, 4.74 ERA) on Friday,
Aaron Mason (0-2, 5.94 ERA) on Saturday, and
Thomas Altimont (0-4, 6.00 ERA) on Sunday.
The Wildcats' issue this season has been offensively where they are hitting just .214 as a team and have scored just 48 runs in 15 games (3.2 runs per game). The Wildcats have struck out 154 times and only drawn 25 walks on the season. No Wildcat regular is hitting better than the .298 average of junior transfer catcher
Alex Copeland.
Senior center fielder
Tyler Eager leads the team in RBI (eight) and is hitting .286, while
Russell Crippen (one),
Marcelle Carter (one) and
Colton Hall (one) have the Wildcats' only three home runs on the season.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, enter the series at 11-7 on the season after taking of three games last weekend from Jackson State (Ala.).
Alabama A&M is hitting .301 on the season and is led by Julio Nunez, who is hitting .412 with five home runs and 27 RBI on the young season. He is tied for 13th in the nation with those five home runs and is tied for national lead in RBI with 27 (tied with Wake Forest teammates Will Craig and Nate Mondou).
The Bulldogs' team ERA is 5.40, although they have struck out 135 opposing hitters in 146 2/3 innings of work.
