ABILENE – For a team that saw almost everything go against it in the first quarter of the season, the ACU Wildcats look for all the world like a team slowly coming out that early season slump.
Junior right-hander
Garrett deMeyere delivered the latest evidence to that statement Friday night with 7 1/3 of dominance on the mound as the Wildcats blanked McNeese State, 5-0, in the first game of a three-game Southland Conference series at Crutcher Scott Field.
The win for ACU gives the Wildcats back-to-back wins for the first time this season and pushes them to 4-14 overall and 3-4 in league play as they won for the third time in their last five games. McNeese entered the game tied for first place in the Southland Conference, but with the loss now falls to 15-7 and 5-2. The Wildcats and Cowboys will be back in action Saturday at 1 p.m. with the series finale set for Sunday at 1 p.m.
deMeyere was outstanding for the Wildcats, working into the eighth inning and scattering seven hits, striking out four Cowboys and walking just one. He only needed 94 pitches to get into the eighth, and he left after giving up a one-out walk.
Ladgie Zotyka and
Kevin Sheets both worked out of some trouble in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, but were able to preserve the shutout, ACU's first of the season.
The last time the Wildcats recorded a shutout at home was April 19, 2014, when they beat Stephen F. Austin behind a complete-game four-hitter by deMeyere. He might have been even better, though, Friday, especially considering the team he was pitching against was second in the Southland in team batting average, third in runs scored and third in hits.
"We're asking our starters to give us 5-6 innings because we love the guys that we have at the backend of the bullpen," said ACU head coach
Britt Bonneau, who is now 693-364-1 in his 19th season with the Wildcats. "But what Garrett did (Friday night) is just icing on the cake. They do a great job at the plate, but he made some big pitches with two outs to keep them from gaining any momentum and keep them off the board."
McNeese had runners at second and third with two outs in the second, but deMeyere got leadoff hitter Andrew Guillotte to pop out to end the inning. In the third, the Cowboys again had runners at second and third down 2-0, but deMeyere coaxed a pop out to shortstop from Lucas Quary to end the inning. Only two Cowboys reached base in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings until deMeyere walked Lewis Guillbeau with one out in the eighth. That was the last batter he faced on the night, exiting to a rousing ovation from the crowd on a crisp, cloudy March evening.
ACU's offense continued to come out of its shell as well as the Wildcats collected at least 10 hits for the fifth time in the last six games. The Wildcats would score all the runs they would need in the second as they came up with a pair of two-out runs.
With two outs and the bases empty,
Jeff Clarke drew a walk and went to third on a single by
Brayden Gomez.
Kyle Carroll then tripled over the head of McNeese right fielder James Cantu to drive in both Clarke and Gomez to make it 2-0 as the bottom of the lineup delivered the first runs of the game.
ACU tacked on another run in the third on a sacrifice fly from Carroll that drove in Clarke, who had reached on a one-out single and gone to third on another single by Gomez.
The Wildcats put the game away in the bottom of the eighth with two more runs to make it 5-0.
Tyler Eager – who was 2 for 4 on the night – reached on a leadoff single and was then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Alex Copeland. That brought
Russell Crippen to the plate, and he promptly put his 0 for 3 night behind him with a sharp single up the middle to drive in Eager and make it 4-0. Crippen went to second on the throw home and later scored on a two-out single to center by Clarke to make it 5-0.
Clarke was 3 for 3 with an RBI, while Carroll – who entered the game with just four RBI – had three RBI to lead the Wildcat offense.
