ACU baseball starts its season with a three-game weekend series against the University of Nevada Wolf Pack.
The Wolf Pack went 31-27 last season with a 15-15 Mountain West Conference record.
Head coach Britt Bonneau said he thinks the team can build off last season’s success as they head into the opening weekend.
“We have a pretty good, solid group of guys that are older and can help this young team out,” he said. “We have a good depth chart and a great pitching staff.”
They return an impressive squad featuring two first-team All-Mountain West selections with senior 3rd-baseman Austin Byler and outfielder Kewby Meyer. Byler hit .326 and led the team with 14 home runs. Meyer hit .328 and led the team in doubles with 27.
Sophomore outfielder Trenton Brooks, who led the team in batting average last year, will also return to the Wolf Pack lineup. Brooks was named to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America team after batting .330 with 35 RBIs.
Bonneau said the team needs to shut down the rest of the lineup to stop the Wolf Pack.
“The question is: Can we stop the guys around them (Byler, Meyer and Brooks) so there’s not a lot of guys on base when they come up?” Bonneau said. “We just got to pick the right time to use our pitches.”
The Wildcats will look to counter the Wolf Pack bats with the return of most of the pitching staff, including strikeout leaders Garrett DeMeyere, junior starting pitcher from Benbrook, and Kevin Sheets, senior relief pitcher from Brier, Washington. DeMeyere led all pitchers in innings pitched last season with 88.
Senior transfer Thomas Altimont will be the opening-day starter for the Wildcats. Altimont went 1-0 last year at Arkansas and put up an ERA just below 2.00 for the Razorbacks.
ACU will look for players to step up at bat this weekend as they lost their top three hitters from last year. They do, however, return senior outfielder Tyler Eager.
Eager has started all three years at ACU, accumulating numerous awards. He has compiled batting averages of .329, .313 and .294 in his three seasons with 189 hits.
Aaron Draper, sophomore infielder from Plano, also looks to start his year off right this weekend after batting .309 in his freshman season.
The series begins at 4 p.m. Friday at, followed by games at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
