ABILENE – Fresh off a three-game sweep of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Abilene Christian baseball continues its eight-game homestand with back-to-back midweek games Tuesday and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. vs. UT Arlington and Eastern Michigan.
The Wildcats (4-3) hit .333 vs. the Golden Lions last weekend in winning by scores of 5-4, 9-7 and 16-7. Junior third baseman
Ryne Randle and senior
Dalon Farkas each batted .500 against Pine Bluff through three starts to lead the offense, while on the mound victories were earned Friday and Sunday by starters
Spencer Chirpich (8K, 5.0 IP) and
Jonathan Nicholson (9K, 6.0 IP). Newcomer
Cole McKay won Saturday's game in relief as the Wildcats scored four times during their eighth-inning at-bat
A total of 11 pitchers were utilized by ACU, and they combined for 29 strikeouts while only issuing 10 bases on balls. They also limited Pine Bluff hitters to a .255 batting average.
Of the Wildcats' 35 base hits, 12 went for extra bases as Farkas clubbed four doubles and Randle blasted a grand slam during Sunday's game, finishing with a D1 era record seven RBI.
Earlier homers were hit by
Luis Trevino,
Derek Scott and
Dalton Dunn, while the Wildcats' two first basemen
Koby Claborn and
Riley Donahue legged out triples.
UT Arlington comes to Abilene Tuesday with a 5-4 record and on a two-game losing streak. The Mavs started this past week with a 10-2 win over Pine Bluff before splitting four games at their UTA Classic. UTA started its weekend with consecutive wins over Stephen F. Austin (9-8) and Wichita State (5-2), but then lost both ends of Sunday's doubleheader vs. the Shocker (8-6) and Lumberjacks (11-9, 10 inn.).
Eastern Michigan has settled down south the last few weeks and currently own a 1-6-1 record. The Eagles began their year with a four-game series vs. NJIT in Hoover, Ala., and this past weekend they went 1-3 at the Alamo Irish Classic in San Antonio. EMU split two games vs. Notre Dame, but was swept by scores of 8-3 and 4-0 by Incarnate Word.
The Eagles remain in Texas the rest of the week as they'll head down to Corpus Christi for a three-game weekend series vs. the Islanders.
