The Wildcat baseball team welcomes the Colorado Christian University Cougars to Crutcher Scott Field on Friday and Saturday.
The ‘Cats begin a four game series with the Cougars with a doubleheader on Friday starting at 2:05 p.m. Saturday, ACU plays another doubleheader. It also kicks off at 2:05 p.m. Both days consist of a seven-inning game followed by a nine-inning game.
Colorado Christian (Lakewood, Colo.) competes in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The program’s first season was in 2006. The Cougars (0-0) are making their 2012 season debut versus the ‘Cats.
Head coach Britt Bonneau is not too familiar with the opponent.
“We don’t know much about CCU,” Bonneau said. “It’s a new program and they had a lot of changes in terms of players from last year. It’s hard to know exactly what they have.”
“At the same time, we have things we need to work on, so we’re going to continue to focus on correcting our mistakes from last week,” Bonneau said.
Senior pitcher Aaron Lambrix isn’t worried about an unfamiliar opponent.
“We don’t concern ourselves with our opponents,” Lambrix said. “We just play the game of baseball.”
In 2010-11, CCU went 9-44 overall and 4-36 in the RMAC. The Cougars have yet to sustain a winning season in its five year existence.
Senior Ryan Kerbel, statistically, was one of Colorado Christian’s better players last season. Kerbel batted .368 in 30 appearances and had 20 RBI to go along with a .451 on-base percentage.
As a team, CCU hit .286 while opponents hit .350. Their pitching staff had an earned run average of 8.58 as opposed to a 5.84 for the other teams.
The Wildcats are coming off a four game series split versus Arkansas Tech University. During the four games, ACU hit .346, had a .441 on-base percentage and scored 43 runs.
Pitching was a struggle however, as the staff posted a 10.12 ERA. Abilene Christian did not help itself in this department. The team issued 33 free bases by way of walk, hit by pitch and six wild pitches.
“We have to improve on the mound,” Bonneau said. “We need to pitch to contact and trust our stuff.”
“This series we plan on not letting the other team get on base with walks, hit batters and wild pitches,” Lambrix said. “We have a good defense.”
Bonneau plans on using the same four starters (Clint Cooper, Lambrix, Jordan Herrera and Austin Palmer) for the Colorado Christian match-up.
