The Wildcats have two more opportunities to win their first Lone Star Conference series of the season and improve their divisional standings.
The ‘Cats play their final homestand of 2012 beginning Friday at 7:05 p.m. versus Tarleton State University. The four-game series continues on Saturday with a doubleheader at 2:05 p.m. and ends on Sunday with another 2:05 p.m. start.
“These are the games we really judge our players on,” head coach Britt Bonneau said. “It’s a huge weekend for the team. With the LSC tournament coming up, we have a chance to do some good for our program and the standings.”
“This weekend is definitely one of the most important series of the year,” said sophomore pitcher Brady Rodriguez. “Getting a win against a team sitting right behind us in the standings would be huge.”
ACU (23-19, 10-10) is 3.0 games behind first in the LSC, sitting in fifth-place. The Texans are tied for sixth place with Cameron University at 9-11.
Four-game splits have become the norm this season for the ‘Cats. Since the start of conference play on March 16, the team has gone 2-2 in every LSC series.
B0nneau would like to see his team play better the next two Saturdays.
“That seems to be the day we need to pick up our game,” he said. “We need to win one or two of those games to give us a chance to win a series on Sunday.”
The Wildcats are riding into this weekend after an 11-1 drubbing of University of Texas of the Permian Basin on Tuesday. In that non-conference contest, Chuck Duarte ended the game with one out in the seventh after blasting a bases-clearing double down the left-field line. Duarte went 2 for 3 with four RBI.
Kyle Conwell and Tyler Eager both went 2 for 4 and scored five of the teams’ runs. Michael Christiani was also productive at the plate recording one hit in two at-bats and scoring a run.
Southpaw starter Austin Palmer got the nod and threw 4.0 innings of four-hit baseball. He allowed one earned run and struck out five batters. Josh Stone (5-4) picked up the win in relief of Palmer by pitching 2.0 scoreless innings.
“Palmer hadn’t pitched in awhile so it was good to get him back on the mound,” Bonneau said. “He threw four solid innings for us which is a plus going into this weekend.”
Other than the Permian Basin match-up, ACU pitchers have been scuffling as of late. Last weekend versus Cameron, the staff posted an ERA over 8.00 and the Aggies hit .343 against them.
However, Rodriguez fared better as he worked through 8.1 innings and gave up just one unearned run while fanning four.
“That was the one bright spot in a pretty tough weekend,” Rodriguez said. “I’m glad I was able to help the team when the staff was struggling.”
The Wildcats hottest hitter the last three weeks has been Duarte. His batting average has raised over 50 points during that span to .364.
Reed Watson, Conwell, Emmett Niland and Travis Schuetze are also on a tear offensively all hitting close to .300 or more.
Tarleton State (18-18) split a four-game series with Angelo State University last weekend and beat Hardin Simmons University 3-0 on Tuesday.
The Texans have a .291 batting average on the year and a .385 on-base percentage. Noah Ringenberger is the team-leader in average (.339) and hits (43). Ryan Small is the RBI leader with 31.
Tarleton has several standout pitchers. Joseph Rubalcaba and Pete Perez both have earned an ERA of less than 3.00. Perez leads the team in wins (6-2) and strikeouts (57). Britt Robertshaw, Austin Coble and Matt Buckmaster all sport an ERA below 4.00 while Coble has the lowest opponents batting average on the Texans (.215).
“Tarleton is going to come at us with their pitchers,” Bonneau said. “We have to match them on the mound with our starters.”
