ABILENE – Abilene Christian looks to win its second Southland Conference weekend to begin the season starting Friday night at 6 p.m. when the Wildcats start a three-game series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Chapman Field.
Additional first pitch times are set for 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Each game has links for live video and real-time statistics.
ACU only has won one series over five years vs. the Islanders, but the team is feeling a positive change in direction after last weekend's series victory over the defending Southland Conference Tournament Champions vs. Northwestern State. The Wildcats were 1-11 all-time heading into their series against the Demons, but received a combined shutout Friday night from Spencer Chirpich and Hunter Spaeth and another gem of a ballgame Sunday from seniors Jonathan Nicholson and Brennan Lewis.
Lewis' save vs. the Demons was his fourth of the spring, which is the most in the Southland Conference and 18th nationally. Chirpich, meanwhile, has struck out eight batters in his last three starts – all 5.0 innings – to lead the league with 12.79 strikeouts per nine innings.
Earlier this week the Wildcats again held their own in Waco against the defending Big 12 Tournament Champions from Baylor in a 6-3 loss. Seniors Dalton Dunn and Koby Claborn each hit home runs against a Bears team that just slipped from the top 25, while the pitching staff combined for eight strikeouts.
ACU's pitching takes on even more importance this weekend as it prepares to face an offense that's No. 3 in the nation with a .330 batting average and second with 221 base hits.
Mike Williams leads his team and is fourth in the Southland with a .400 batting average and Itchy Burts is close behind, hitting a .363 clip with six doubles and 17 runs scored.
The Wildcats are hitting .265 as a team and their two round-trippers in Waco pushed them up to No. 36 in the nation with 16 home runs. Senior catcher / designated hitter Luis Trevino, who is No. 6 in the Southland with a .391 batting average leads the team with four home runs and Claborn is one back with three. This duo also leads ACU with 17 RBI each, while top-of-the-order batters Dalon Farkas and Derek Scott rank second in the league (34th nationally) with seven doubles apiece.
