Baseball | 4/12/2016 1:40:00 PM
Abilene Christian (11-19) at #3 Texas A&M (25-7)
Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park
College Station, TX
Tuesday, April 12 (6:34 p.m.): Audio l
Live Stats Starting Pitchers
Friday: RHP
Nate Cole (ACU) vs. RHP Stephen Kolek (A&M)
Statistics: ACU (
Cumulative l
Game-by-Game l
Individual Game-by-Game l
Miscellaneous Stats)
COLLEGE STATION — The ACU Wildcats are back in action today in Aggieland to take on the No. 3-ranked Texas A&M Aggies in a game that will be broadcast to a national television audience on the SEC Network.
First pitch from Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park is set for 6:34 p.m. Texas A&M leads the all-time series, 4-0, including last year's 3-2 win over the Wildcats when the Aggies were the top-ranked team in the country.
The game will be available for viewing on SEC Network + with Will Johnson and Mark Johnson on the call. SEC Network + provides digital-only events to SEC Network subscribers through WatchESPN and the ESPN app on smartphones, computers, tablets and connected devices (Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One). The game can also be heard locally on 98.1 FM and on acusports.com.
The Wildcats enter the game at 11-19 overall, while the Aggies are 25-7 and coming off a three-game series sweep of Southeastern Conference foe Georgia last weekend in College Station. The Wildcats, meanwhile, lost two of three games at home to Houston Baptist.
ACU is set to send senior righthander
Nate Cole to the mound, and he'll do so carrying a 1-3 record and 2.83 ERA. He'll be opposed by A&M freshman righthander, Stephen Kolek, who is 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA.
The Wildcats got the 2016 season off to a good start by winning eight of their first 12 games. However, as the offense has struggled, so have the Wildcats. ACU has now lost 15 of its last 18 games to fall to 11-19 on the season with the only wins coming against Texas-Permian Basin (10-0 on March 15), Dallas Baptist (3-2 on March 29) and Houston Baptist (9-0 on April 8).
ACU is hitting just .256 as a team and has scored just 116 runs in those 30 games (3.9 runs per game) and has just 50 extra-base hits (39 doubles, four triples and seven home runs) among its 253 hits. Senior catcher
Alex Copeland is hitting .310 on the season to lead the team, while junior infielder
Russell Crippen is hitting .309 with two home runs and 11 RBI Junior transfer
Braxton Wilks leads the team with 17 home runs to go along with a .260 batting average.
ACU head coach
Britt Bonneau — now in his 20th season with the Wildcats — is fielding easily the youngest starting lineup in his tenure with three freshmen starting each game and several others playing significant roles. Shortstop
Mark Pearson has been the most consistent of the group, hitting .282 with six RBI and playing beyond his years in the field.
Outfielder Hunter Karkwardt is hitting .232 with seven RBI, while outfielder
Derek Scott — who broke a bone in his wrist just before the season started and is just now two weeks back into the lineup — is hitting .154 with two doubles and two RBI. Other freshmen who are playing are
David Ruot, Wllie Harris,
Hunter Hays and
Conner Nichols.
The Aggies are 20-1 at home this season. The pitching staff owns a 1.73 ERA and is holding opponents to a .209 batting average at Blue Bell Park. Offensively, the Aggies are hitting .338 at home, paced by Boomer White's .397 average. Hunter Melton has 24 runs, six home runs and 34 RBI in 21 games at Blue Bell Park.
After Tuesday's game at Texas A&M, the Wildcats will return home to Crutcher Scott Field this weekend to host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a three-game Southland Conference series that begins Friday and concludes Sunday.
