ABILENE – After a tumultuous week of rescheduling and searching for a way to play, the ACU baseball team returned to the diamond in a big way Sunday afternoon and evening against the Big Ten's Michigan State. The Wildcats (3-3) used great pitching and got their dynamic offense going against the Spartans (3-3), dominating both games of the doubleheader, winning 10-1 in game one and 12-4 in game two to ensure a series win. It is the fifth and sixth wins for the program ever against a power five opponent, and it came on 24 total hits and multiple big innings from the offense.
How It Happened
- The Wildcats cruised to a lead in both games. Sophomore
Tyler Morgan got the ball in the opener, and pitched a 1-2-3 first to give the offense a chance to grab the lead. Mission accomplished.
Colton Eager ripped a two-run home run to give ACU the early lead they would not surrender.
- Michigan State got a run back in the fourth, but ACU would answer in the home fifth with a busy inning. After loading the bases,
Tommy Cruz and
Hunter Gieser drew walks to bring in two more.
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Brett Hammit singled to left in the seventh to score
Aaron Staehely for some insurance, giving ACU a 5-1 advantage. Eager then launched a 432-foot, three-run homer to right to push the lead to 8-1.
Miller Ladusau then doubled in
Grayson Tatrow and
Mitchell Dickson to lead 10-1. The offense went bonkers in the game one victory.
- ACU trailed for a grand total of one half inning Sunday. It game in game two's top of the first, when the 'Cats got behind 1-0. That ended immediately when Gieser singled in the bottom of the first to score Eager to tie the game. That run came with two outs, and then the onslaught began. ACU scored six in the first, all with two outs, including an rbi-walk from Hammit and a game-changing bases-clearing triple from catcher
Tanner Tweedt. He ripped one down the right field line, and it appeared as though it might be caught, but it dropped in fair territory and ended up giving ACU a 5-1 lead. It pushed to 6-1 when
Alexei Cazarin singled in Tweedt.
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Breck Eichelberger got the ball in game two, and was dominant for six innings while the offense teed off.
- The 'Cats plated three more in the third, when
Bash Randle scored on a passed ball and Tweedt crushed a two-run homer to right center.
- The runs kept coming with three more in the fourth on singles from Gieser and Hammit, along with a wild pitch to score Ladusau.
- Michigan State scored three in the ninth with the game out of hand.
Stat Pack
- Despite the offense dominating, the pitching was just as phenomenal. Morgan went four scheduled innings to get his first win of the year, allowing one run on five hits with four strikeouts.
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Genner Cervantes then stepped in, tossing two innings of scoreless ball with three punch outs.
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Connor Carlton struck out six in relief, throwing three frames himself.
- Eichelberger put together ACU's longest outing from a starter this season, throwing six innings in game two, allowing one earned on six hits with eight strikeouts.
-
Carter Sells struck out five in his six outs he got in two innings of relief.
- Offensively, Tweedt was a double away from the cycle in game two, going 3-for-3 with five driven in.
- Eager drove in five as well with three hits including his two homers.
- Randle led ACU with four hits including a triple.
- Gieser, Eager, and Dickson all tallied three hits Sunday as well.
Beyond the Box Score
- Eager's two homers are the first such game for the grad student since May 8, 2021 when he hit two homers against Lamar.
- Randle recorded his second career triple.
- Sunday's marks ACU's first winning streak of the young season.
- ACU now has six wins over power-five teams. ACU beat Arizona in back-to-back seasons (2014-15), won at TCU in 2018, won at Texas A&M in 2021, and beat Michigan State twice Sunday.
Up Next
The series wraps up on Monday, Feb. 28 with a single game at 2:05 p.m. The game will air on the WAC Digital Network.
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