ABILENE – Abilene Christian baseball concludes its eight-game homestand this weekend with a three-game series against the Hartford Hawks of the American East Conference. The Hawks (0-3) are in search of their first win after being swept at UC Santa Barbara last weekend, while the Wildcats are looking to snap a frustrating two-game losing streak that includes Tuesday's 2-0 loss vs. UT Arlington and Wednesday night's 6-5 heartbreaking defeat to Eastern Michigan.
Friday's and Sunday's games will air on
98.1 FM - The Ticket with
Seth Wilson handling the play-by-play. There also will be
a video stream provided for Saturday's and Sunday's contests, and real-time stats provided for each game. Fans additionally can receive in-game updates via
@ACU_Baseball twitter.
Highlights from the first half of the week include Tuesday starter
Brock Barger pitching 6.0 scoreless innings with three strikeouts vs. the Mavericks, reliever
Logan Patterson keeping the Wildcats' in Wednesday's game with 3.1 shutout frames, and a two-run home run from
Derek Scott in the fourth inning vs. the Eagles. And while ACU only has 13 hits through its first two games, seven of those have gone for extra bases as both
Robert Salazar and
Dalton Dunn each have clubbed a pair of doubles.
Pitching-wise for ACU this week, seven hurlers have combined for a respectable 3.50 ERA with just two wild pitches through 18.0 innings and a 12 / 6 K:BB ratio.
Hartford qualified for last year's NCAA Tournament, going to the Stetson (DeLand, Fla.) Regional where it lost to the host Hatters, 8-3, and second-seeded South Florida, 9-4. The Hawks were 26-31 in 2018, but went 16-8 against the America East Conference and won the America East Tournament in Orono, Maine, twice beating Stony Brook in addition to UMass Lowell.
Hartford didn't play during the first week of the regular season (Feb. 15-17), and instead started its 2019 campaign in Santa Barbara where the Gauchos defeated the Hawks by scores of 10-5, 6-4 and 14-0. Hartford left the series with a 10.13 ERA, but received a solid outing from Billy DeVito who struck out five in 5.0 innings pitched with only two runs allowed.
John Thrasher was Hartford's leading hitter at UCSB, ripping five base hits (two doubles) in nine at-bats, but the team's combined average stalled at .194. The Hawks additionally surrendered seven stolen bases and posted an opponents' batting average of .333 complete with nine walks and 13 hit batsmen.
