By Joshua Parrott, Sports Writer
It’s hard to imagine junior first baseman Arnie Gomez being as humble as he was after hitting the go-ahead home run in Sunday’s victory over Tarleton State in Stephenville.
It’s also hard to imagine the most dominant baseball team in the Lone Star Conference over the past three seasons fighting for their post-season lives after dropping two of three games against the Texans this past weekend.
The Wildcats, 24-12 overall and 10-7 in LSC South play, are currently third in the LSC South Division but were helped by the play of West Texas A&M, who took two of three against LSC South leader Texas A&M-Kingsville this past weekend. Only the top two teams from the two LSC divisions earn post-season tournament berths.
ACU will have a Saturday road double-header at Dallas Baptist but don’t play another conference game until April 11 when division-leader Texas A&M-Kingsville comes to Abilene for a three-game series. The Wildcats played Incarnate Word Tuesday in a home doubleheader, but results were unavailable at press time.
Gomez, a junior first baseman, said the Wildcats needed to salvage their season with a win Sunday.
“The game we played on Sunday [coming back from a 4-0 deficit] was a turning point in our season,” said Gomez, who is hitting .282 with 6 home runs and 13 RBI this season. “That set the momentum for the rest of the game. Hopefully it sparks things up for us.”
ACU lost the first two games of the three-game series 6-1 at the hands of the Texans, who are only 19-21 overall yet are second in the LSC South at 10-5. Tarleton State has beaten ACU in five of six games this season despite meager contributions from LSC South Division pre-season Player of the Year Noel Sauceda, who is hitting below .300 so far this season.
Senior infielder Luis Munoz, last week’s LSC South Division Hitter-of-the-Week, said the Wildcats have struggled to come through in the clutch situations they have in the past-key to any hopes of a post-season appearance.
“We really weren’t hitting,” said Munoz, who is hitting .319 with 6 doubles and 19 runs scored this season. “All of our hitters are dangerous at the plate, but we’re all going to need to be hot hitters to win the conference and hopefully go to the World Series.”
