ACU baseball heads to Houston Friday to begin a three-game series against the number two Southland offense, Houston Baptist University.
ACU enters the game with a 14-23 overall record and a 4-7 Southland record. Houston Baptist enters with an 18-19 overall record and a 7-11 record in the conference.
Head coach Britt Bonneau said the Wildcats are continuing their search for a third pitcher this weekend as they head to Houston.
“We are still trying to search for that Friday night guy, so we will have to figure out how to take care of this first game,” Bonneau said. “We are going to continue to work hard on trying to find the right defense to put out there.”
The Wildcats enter this series coming off their first loss ever to McMurry University Monday but gained two solid wins over the weekend against Stephen F. Austin University. One of the wins featured the first complete game shutout by a Wildcat pitcher in nine years. Sophomore pitcher Garrett Demeyere went nine innings walking zero batters and allowing only four hits.
“I felt real good. I mean I had all my pitches going, which was helpful,” Demeyere said. “They had a lot of lefties in the lineup, so just sticking to the game plan and throwing inside was effective. Winning the series was a confidence-booster for sure going into this weekend against Houston Baptist.”
The performance of Demeyere and senior Brady Rodriguez showed the Wildcats have two solid starters, but they still lack a third. ACU has featured eight different starters on the mound this season.
The bullpen will need to show up against Houston Baptist, which boasts the second-best team batting average in the Southland. They are lead by Jordan McCoy, who is batting .389 with 23 runs batted in.
Despite the team’s pitching struggles, the offensive side of the game for the Wildcats has continued to be strong this season with four different players still hitting above .300. They are led by freshman Brandon Grudzielanek, who is hitting .373 with a team-leading 29 runs batted in. Seth Spivey enters with his great season intact with a .371 batting average, three home runs and 11 doubles.
The Wildcats begin their series against HBU at 2 p.m. on Friday and continues until Sunday.
