ACU baseball continues their tough stretch of games this Friday in the UT-Arlington tournament.
The Wildcats start off the tournament with a familiar face in Missouri State University. ACU played Missouri State last Friday in the Bourland-Ardoin Classic. The ‘Cats were shut out 12-0 and will look to improve on their previous effort. First pitch will be at 11 a.m.
Saturday, the Wildcats will face off against Pac-12 opponent Utah at 11 a.m. and finish out Sunday against UTA at 3 p.m.
UTA comes into this season with a WAC regular season Championship under head coach Darin Thomas.
“It’s not getting any easier,” head coach Britt Bonneau said. “Our next five ball games will be against some high caliber competition and we have no time to relax.”
ACU will depend heavily on their bats in these games, most notably on senior Seth Spivey who continues to lead the Southland Conference with a .576 batting average. Brandon Grudzielanek has also had a solid season for the Wildcats, hitting .471 on the season.
“It’s going to be fun to see where we stand at a Division one level,” Spivey said. “Playing against Missouri State, Utah and UTA, so we have some tough competition but it should be fun.”
The tough competition does not end with this tournament with the Wildcats traveling to Lubbock March 11 to take on Texas Tech.
The Wildcats also finished up a game against Oklahoma on Wednesday. A pitching duel on Wednesday between ACU’s Garrett Demeyere and Oklahoma’s Bullpen ended in a 4-1 win for Oklahoma. The Sooners scored two runs early to make a 2-1 game. Demeyere pitched five innings, only allowing two earned runs on six hits with a walk and a couple of strikeouts.
Offensively, the Wildcats struggled to score runs against four talented Oklahoma pitchers. ACU scratched across one run on six hits in the contest. Gruczielanek lead the offensive charge for the ‘Cats by getting a couple of hits in the game. Spivey scored the lone run for the Wildcats and went one-for-three on the afternoon with a walk. Guisti and Kyle Forrester also had hits in the game.
ACU will be back in action as they head to Arlington to participate in the UT-Arlington tournament this weekend.
