ABILENE – Abilene Christian baseball (19-17, 6-9 SLC) starts a must-win Southland Conference series vs. Lamar (13-24, 5-13 SLC) Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Crutcher Scott Field. Games two and three are set for Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m.
All three games will air locally on
98.1 FM – The Ticket, while games one and three will be video streamed via
ACUSports.com; however, it might be worth a trip to the Key City as the forecast looks to be spectacular with no chance of precipitation expected and afternoon highs of 73 Thursday and Friday and 86 Saturday.
Why must win? Because there's no time like the present for the Wildcats to begin making their move up the league standings against a fortuitous schedule that includes 15 games against Southland teams that are no more than 2.0 games ahead or behind ACU. A series win over the Cardinals not only would help the Wildcats catch the teams ahead of them, but provide additional distance over the teams beneath them in the standings.
ACU enters this series in ninth place, 3.0 games out of a possible postseason spot but also only 1.0 game out of last place, which is currently shared by Lamar and the New Orleans Privateers, who the Wildcats will visit the first weekend of May. As it stands, ACU really can't afford another series loss if it wants to guaranteed itself a trip to Sugar Land, Texas for the Southland's Championship Tournament.
The Wildcats have a 16-7 home record this spring and have won all but one (Opening Weekend vs. Bryant) of their three-game series, including both Southland weekends vs. Northwestern State (20-14, 10-8) and Incarnate Word (23-13, 11-7). The way in which ACU recorded series wins over the Demons and Cardinals made last weekend's series loss at 11th-place Houston Baptist (12-24, 5-10) feel like a major upset, that and the fact that the Wildcats followed a 21-run outburst in game one with a combined two runs in games two and three.
Rewind though to earlier in the season, and the Wildcats bounced back from a wind-aided 24-11 loss to the defending tournament champions from Northwestern State with an absolute gem of a ball game (W, 6-2) pitched by
Jonathan Nicholson (7.0 IP, 7K) and
Brennan Lewis. Several weeks later vs. UIW, they put a Friday 14-inning loss behind them with a Saturday walk off victory followed by 9-3 statement in the series finale. Nicholson again was solid over 7.0 innings in sewing up his third win of 2019.
The Crutch has become more of a hitter's park in recent years, and this season the Wildcats are hitting .299 on their home diamond with 24 home runs and an average of 7.7 runs per game. Three everyday starters are hitting well over .360 at home led by senior catcher / designated hitter
Luis Trevino whose home slash line is an impressive .448 / .534 / .851. Infielder
Dalton Dunn is batting .368 through 23 home starts, while Abilene native
Derek Scott is batting .366 with 13 extra-base hits in front of his hometown crowd.
ACU's pitching staff also feels comfortable at home with a staff ERA of 4.76. The Wildcats' weekend starting rotation of
Spencer Chirpich,
Brock Barger and
Jonathan Nicholson have combined to win eight games with 84K, while closer Lewis has saved five games behind a spotless ERA through 19.1 innings (10 appearances). Opposing batters are hitting. 248 at The Crutch.
