ACU hosts Lamar for final home series and senior weekend

ABILENE – The ACU baseball team will play its final three games at Crutcher Scott Field this weekend when they welcome in the Lamar Cardinals. It is a big weekend ahead as the fourth-place Wildcats (25-22, 13-11 WAC) sit just one game out of second place behind the Cardinals (30-19, 14-10 WAC), and can make ground in the Southwest Division standings. ACU will host Senior Day on Sunday afternoon, when they recognize 10 of their veterans prior to first pitch. Friday gets underway at 6:05 p.m., Saturday gets started at 3:05 p.m., and Sunday's finale begins at 1:05 p.m. All three games this weekend will air on ESPN+.

SERIES HISTORY VS. LAMAR

• ALL-TIME | 42nd meeting (LU leads, 24-17)
• LAST MEETING | ACU 11, LU 8 (2022 - Beaumont, Texas)
• STREAK | ACU, w1
• IN ABILENE | LU leads, 9-3 (Since 2014)
• IN BEAUMONT | LU leads, 5-4 (Since 2014)
• NEUTRAL | ACU leads, 1-0
• POSTSEASON | ACU leads, 1-0

THE PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS

FRIDAY | ACU RHP Tyler Morgan (5-2, 4.40 ERA) vs. LU RHP Braxton Douthit (6-2, 3.15 ERA)
SATURDAY | ACU RHP Genner Cervantes (5-3, 5.80 ERA) vs. LU RHP Adam Wheaton (8-2, 2.68 ERA)
SUNDAY | ACU LHP Adam Stephenson (2-2, 6.87 ERA) vs. LU TBD

ACU STORYLINES

• 2-2 WEEK – ACU went 2-2 last week, beginning with a 16-12 loss to No. 9 Texas Tech at home in front of a record crowd of 4,087 on Tuesday, May 3. The Wildcats then took two-out-of-three in Stephenville against Tarleton, winning game one on Friday, 11-7, before winning Saturday, 7-4. Tarleton took game three on Sunday, 9-6, to salvage a game in the series. ACU hit .314 for the week, and put together a team ERA of 6.94.
• WHERE THE WILDCATS STAND – ACU currently sits in fourth place in the WAC Southwest Division at 13-11, but is just one game out of first place with six games remaining. The Wildcats have a three-game series at home against second-place Lamar (14-10) for senior weekend, and close the season in Huntsville against first-place Sam Houston (17-7).
• AN EYE ON THE STREAKS – Bryson Hill leads ACU with a 10-game hitting streak, while Mitchell Dickson has hit safely in eight-straight games. Dickson's 11-game on-base streak leads the team, while Hill has reached safely in 10 consecutive games.
• RECORDS BROKEN THIS SEASON – ACU struck out 20 batters as a team at SFA on April 29, breaking a new Division I program record in a single game. The Wildcats now have 478 strikeouts this season, the most in a season EVER, and have hit 72 home runs, also the most EVER in a single campaign. Individuals now sit atop the record books as well. Tyler Morgan has more strikeouts in a career than anyone at the D1 level for ACU (141), while Grayson Tatrow's 25 career home runs are the most in the D1 era for the Wildcats. Colton Eager's 132 runs batted in are the most in the D1 era, and his 354 total bases rank No. 1 as well. Tatrow's 56 runs scored this season are the most in a single campaign in ACU's Division I history as well.
• MORE RECORDS LOOMING – Grayson Tatrow has hit 15 home runs this season, tying for the most in a single season in the Division I of ACU baseball. The next one will break a tie with Luis Treviño, who hit 15 in 2019 before being drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays just after the 2019 season. Tatrow is also six RBI away from tying Treviño's record-setting 2019 campaign, when he led the Southland Conference with 63 RBI.
• SENIOR DAY – ACU will recognize its 10 seniors on Sunday prior to the weekend finale against Lamar. Alexei Cazarin, Genner Cervantes, Tommy Cruz, Colton Eager, Garrett Egli, Hunter Gieser, Trevor Jackson, Tanner Riley, Connor Carlton, and Carter Sells have all made significant contributions to the Wildcat baseball program, and will be honored for their accomplishments. As a group, they have won 115 games including 57 conference wins. In that stretch included the historic 2021 campaign that featured 36 wins, 25 in Southland Conference play, and a regular-season league title, the first of its kind at ACU since moving to Division I.

SCOUTING LAMAR (30-19, 14-10 WAC)

• The Caridinals are coming off a 10-1, non-conference win over Southern on Tuesday night, but did drop two-out-of-three at home against UTRGV last weekend.
• ACU took two from Lamar in Beaumont, and did so with six runs on Friday and 11 runs on Sunday. Lamar has an offense that is hitting .280 for the year, and is slugging .409 with 90 doubles, 17 triples, and 31 home runs.
• The pitching has been phenomenal all year, posting a team ERA of 4.42 in 431 innings of work. Lamar has only allowed 173 walks this season.

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