By Grant Abston, Sports Editor
Despite losing its first two games against East Central University on Saturday, the Wildcat baseball team bounced back, sweeping Sunday’s doubleheader to earn a series split and remain atop the Lone Star Conference standings.
ACU (23-7, 16-4) fell three spots in Collegiate Baseball Magazine’s national poll to No. 8 but remains one game ahead of Angelo State for first place in the LSC. ECU fell to 11-17 overall and sits in eighth place in the LSC with a 10-10 record.
“It was a tough weekend for us,” head coach Britt Bonneau said. “We were kind of up and down with our pitching, and it’s always been tough to play at East Central.”
Before entering the weekend, the Wildcats were coming off a tripleheader sweep on March 10 after defeating Marietta College 4-2 and winning two games against the University of the Southwest, 14-2 and 15-2. Catcher Jordan Schmitt continued his hot hitting, going 8-11 with five doubles, one home run and three RBI, giving him 60 career doubles to break the all-time LSC record of 58. Schmitt also tied former all-American outfielder Mike Elkerson for the ACU career home run record with 27.
“He just continues to be consistent and hit the ball hard with runners in scoring position, ” Bonneau said of Schmitt. “We had a lot of guys that hadn’t gotten at bats that got some playing time, which gave us some more rest before going on the road.”
The three wins pushed the Wildcat’s winning streak to seven, entering their weekend series with ECU. However, the Tigers jumped all over ACU in Saturday’s doubleheader, winning the first game 5-1 before scoring six runs in the final two innings to win game two, 11-10.
In game one, ECU starting pitcher Chasen Bennett shut down ACU’s offense, going five innings and allowing just one run on seven hits. The Tigers scored one run in the second and four in the third, keyed by a two-run single by outfielder Jared Owen and a two-run double by first baseman Andrew Minnich to get the win. In game two, ACU fell behind 5-2 before scoring four runs in the sixth and seventh innings to take a 10-5 lead. But ECU responded, scoring three runs in the eight and three more in the ninth to sweep the doubleheader.
Schmitt led ACU’s offense, going 3-5 with 5 RBI in game two; center fielder Davis Page went 1-4 with 2 RBI; and short stop Willie Uechi went 4-5 with 2 RBI. Closer Brad Rutherford picked up the loss, allowing three runs off three hits in the ninth to move to 3-2.
“In game one, we didn’t hit and had runners in scoring position and had the bases loaded and hit into three double plays,” Bonneau said after ACU left eight runners on base in game one. “In game two, we had 10-5 lead going into last couple innings and walked too many batters, and when you do that against team that puts ball in play, you know how it goes.”
In Sunday’s doubleheader, ACU bounced back, winning game one 7-6 before splitting the series with a 14-6 win in the series finale. With the score tied at five going into the sixth inning of game one, Page doubled home third baseman Steve Camillucci to give ACU a one-run lead; Schmitt doubled to score Page on the next at-bat to extend the lead to two. The Tigers threatened in the bottom of the seventh after scoring to pull within one, but Rutherford came on to preserve the win, striking out the final batter with runners on first and second to earn his fifth save of the season.
Relief pitcher Corey Kelly got his fourth win of the season, pitching two innings and allowing just one earned run in relief of starting pitcher Preston Vancil. Page and Schmitt had a game-high three hits, while Uechi and first baseman Bret Bochsler added two hits.
ACU exploded for 14 runs on 20 hits in the series finale, led by right fielder Travis Latz and second baseman Chris Hall, who each had four hits. Schmitt, center fielder Thomas Bumpass and Uechi each added three hits, as the Wildcats scored 10 runs in the first three innings to put the game away early.
Starting pitcher Cameron Watten improved to 2-0 on the season after going five innings and allowing no runs on three hits. Uechi and Bumpass each had a team-high 3 RBI, while Bochsler had two and Latz added two, one coming off his third home run of the year.
“It was a good thing to bounce back after getting swept,” Vancil said. “We’re not really used to [getting swept] but we showed up and were able to bounce back after two pretty bad loses. I think that was really important for us, especially going into this weekend.”
The Wildcats will continue conference play Friday at 6 p.m. in a four-game series against Southeastern Oklahoma State.
