The Wildcats finished their weekend series in Huntsville with a 1-2 record against the Alabama A&M Bulldogs.
ACU started the weekend off with a 13-12 win in the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday and broke their four-game losing streak.
The Wildcats rattled off 19 hits and had six different players with two or more hits. Kyle Giusti led the way going 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs.
“The first game was awesome because we had about 20 hits and 13 runs,” Giusti said. “We played decent defense and it was good for the offense.”
ACU followed up the shootout with a 7-1 loss in the second game Saturday. A&M and ACU were tied heading into the bottom of the eighth, when four Wildcat pitchers gave up six runs to the Bulldogs, sealing the victory for A&M.
Garrett Demeyere pitched the first seven innings allowing six hits and no earned runs.
Despite only having one run in the second game on Saturday, A&M’s pitchers allowed four hits and 10 walks to the Wildcats. The ‘Cats could not turn the pitching woes into runs as they stranded 10 runners, continuing their consistent scoring problem this season.
Sunday’s game ended the series the same way it started, in shootout fashion. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 6-1 lead early on, but the Wildcats rallied back throughout the game to make it an 8-8 game heading into the bottom of the eighth. The Bulldogs drove in one more run in the eighth to finish out a wild weekend with a 9-8 win.
ACU’s bats had eleven hits in the loss, including a 4-for-5 game from Giusti. Relief pitcher Stuart Patke was credited with the loss after a seven strikeout, zero-earned run performance.
“A few defensive errors cost us in a few games,” head coach Britt Bonneau said. “We are just leaving too many runners on base. Game one, we hit the ball well but game two, we left too many guys on and our bullpen wasn’t able to hold it. Game three, we fought to get back into that game but that error kind of bit us at the end.”
Giusti led the Wildcats offensively over the weekend going 8-for-12 with four runs and three runs batted in.
ACU returns to action Friday against the University of Incarnate Word at 2 p.m. Friday. Giusti hopes the Wildcats can finally put the team into winning form today and over the next couple of weeks.
“We are young and we are pretty inconsistent right now,” Giusti said. “We will either have a really good pitching game and we won’t be able to hit or we’ll hit really well and we won’t be able to pitch or play defense. We just need to put everything together.”
