Sluggers Watkins, Cardenas Form a Fearsome 1-2 Punch in Wildcats’ Lineup

Friday, April 17

Bloomington, Ind.

5 p.m. (CT)

Abilene Christian

Indiana

Grant Watkins congratulates Diego Cardenas on a home run in ACU's matchup with McNeese in Lake Charles, La. on March 29, 2026.

Photo by: Kaylee Kahn

Sluggers Watkins, Cardenas Form a Fearsome 1-2 Punch in Wildcats’ Lineup

4/17/2026 11:38:00 AM | Baseball

By: Luke White

The 2026 baseball season has fostered something of a game within the game for Abilene Christian's Grant Watkins and Diego Cardenas. As the sluggers have established themselves among the top home run hitters in the country, it's bred a friendly competition, if not motivation, between the two within the dugout.

Watkins and Cardenas have developed prime real estate atop the national home run leaderboard, touting 18 and 17 long balls, respectively. Watkins is tied for fifth and Cardenas is drawn for seventh, making the Wildcats the only program with two hitters within the top 10 for homers. The pair tops the Western Athletic Conference rankings, with the next-closest batter hitting 12 home runs.

There lies the race between the two, who have combined for over half of ACU's 67 home runs that rank 13th in the nation. It's not unfamiliar territory for Watkins and Cardenas, who are on pace to surpass their marks from last season. Cardenas paced the WAC with 19 round-trippers, while Watkins went deep 16 times to tie for fourth. They've totaled 70 homers between 2025-26.

Bragging rights are on the line not just on the national and conference scale, but also in the clubhouse. Watkins and Cardenas are chasing ACU legend Grayson Tatrow, who holds the program's all-time career (52) and single-season (25) records for home runs, set from 2021-23.

"There's definitely the friendly competition," Watkins said. "Me and Diego love it. Last year, there was a race for it, and this year, the race started early and we've just tried to keep it going. Neither of us like looking at stats too much, but it's always fun to have a little friendly competition between us two."

Watkins said both Wildcats feed off of that good-natured competition, and it shows in the batter's box. Cardenas leads the WAC in runs batted in (50), doubles (15), slugging percentage (.760) and OPS (1.153). Watkins ranks within the top five for RBIs (38), slugging percentage (.683) and runs scored (37).

"It's always fun to make fun of each other and see how it's going on the field," Watkins said. "I know me and Diego think about [the home run race] sometimes, if one guy gets one and gets close, we joke a little bit and try to get on top of the other guy."

As much of an asset as Watkins and Cardenas' offensive prowess is to ACU's lineup, it presents just as much of a challenge to opposing pitching staffs facing the two- and three-hole hitters. They're key to the Wildcats' .509 slugging percentage ranking 30th nationally.

"You've just got to deal with them," head coach Rick McCarty said. "A lot of days, they're back to back in the lineup. One may get you, or the other one might. … I don't know that we've had that here with just two guys, so if that continues to push on in the back part of the season, that's going to be pretty exciting to watch with those two guys.

That tandem was on display in ACU's 11-4 win over Tarleton State on April 10, when Gavin Brzozowski, Zandt Payne, Cardenas and Watkins hit four consecutive home runs within the span of 13 pitches.

"They've really performed at a high level since they've been on campus here and have kind of been staples in the middle of the lineup. From a pitching mind, it's never fun to navigate. When you've got one [slugger], it's not fun, when you've got two, it's certainly different. I hope that sets up to be a pretty cool thing down the back half of the spring."

While he's been filling plenty of box scores this year, Watkins said a key to his success has been not diving into his stats and instead focusing on his routine. For the Wildcats, that looks like taking a simple approach into each game.

"It's kind of just been flushing the results, you know, don't think about them," Watkins said. "Stick with the process and what I've been doing, and if it doesn't work out, as long as I stick with my process, it's a win, and the results have been paying off so far. We're helping the whole team go process-oriented, hit by hit, piece by piece. If a guy gets on, we're just hoping we can have another good at-bat, move a guy over and see what we can do all the way through the lineup."

The Wildcats will take that mindset into this weekend's final nonconference series versus Indiana in Bloomington, Ind. The teams get started at 5 p.m. (CT) Friday ahead of a 1 p.m. (CT) first pitch on Sunday. The weekend wraps up at 11 a.m. (CT) Sunday.

"It'll be a really cool environment," Watkins said. " ... For us to do well this weekend, we've just got to play good baseball. I think if we play our brand of baseball with hot shots on the mound and slug at the plate, I think we'll have a really good chance to win a series."