By Grant Abston, Sports Editor
The baseball team returns home this weekend for a four-game series against Southeastern Oklahoma State University, looking to build on a two-game winning streak and remain atop the Lone Star Conference standings.
Despite losing the first two games of last weekend’s series against East Central, the Wildcats won the final two games to earn a series split and improve to 23-7 overall and 16-4 in the LSC. ACU fell three spots to No. 8 in Collegiate Baseball Magazine’s national poll after last weekend but remains one game ahead of Angelo State in the conference standings.
“Southeastern always has a great team, and they have great tradition there and always seem to bring out the best in us,” head coach Britt Bonneau said. “We had a good, hard-fought series with them last year at their place, and it will be a dogfight this weekend.”
Entering this weekend, ACU leads the LSC in batting average (.352), hits (343) and runs (247). The offense is led by catcher Jordan Schmitt, who is fourth in the conference with a .443 batting average, second in hits with 51 and leads the LSC with 30 runs scored and 53 RBI. Joining Schmitt will be shortstop Willie Uechi, who has a LSC-high .483 batting average and leads the conference with 57 hits. Infielder and pitcher Cameron Watten (.372), second baseman Chris Hall (.406) and outfielder Anthony Walsh (.410) all have averages above .350 for an offense that has averaged more than eight runs on the past two LSC series.
Defensively, ACU boasts a conference-high 4.64 ERA and is led by starting pitchers Cameron Watten (2-0, 1.15 ERA), Cameron Aspaas (4-1, 2.95 ERA) and Preston Vancil (2-2, 3.89 ERA). Vancil leads the LSC in strikeouts with 56, while Aspaas is fifth in conference with a 2.95 ERA. Relief pitchers Kevin Justice, Andrew Yacek and Brad Rutherford also will play an important role as the three pitchers have combined for 11 wins this season.
“I think the things we’re looking to do are the same things we have done all year,” Vancil said. “We fell behind hitters last weekend, and it’s not something we do a lot. We’re looking to get ahead of hitters, get ground balls and hitting the strike zone a little bit better this weekend.”
Southeastern Oklahoma State enters the weekend 13-11 overall and 10-9 in conference; the Savage Storm stands in fifth place in the LSC after going 1-2 against Tarleton State last weekend. The team is third in the LSC defensively with a 5.02 ERA and is led by pitchers Reece Dodd (6-1, 2.39 ERA) and Blake Worthen (1-2, 3.65 ERA). Offensively, infielder Mike McCollum leads the team with a .404 batting average, and infielder Trey Wingo has a team-high five home runs and 20 RBI.
The series will begin Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a doubleheader Saturday at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. The series will conclude Sunday with a game a 2 p.m.
“Hopefully we can get a lot of student body out there and we need some big crowds to help us through the four-game series so that we can hold our lead in the conference standings,” Bonneau said.
