Baseball goes into this weekend against Creighton riding a four-game win streak, including a three-game sweep against North Dakota State University last weekend.
ACU entered last weekend 0-4 after being swept in four games by Michigan State. After the series, senior Russell Crippen said they focused all of their time on NDSU.
“Michigan State didn’t go as planned, but we learned a lot about ourselves even though we lost all four games,” Crippen said. “The only thing we could do was prepare for North Dakota State, so that’s all we focused on.”
It worked, as ACU allowed only 5 runs on 17 hits over the three games, winning those games by scores of 4-1, 9-1, and 5-3. ACU hit .299 for the series while NDSU struggled, hitting only .189. ACU also struggled with errors against Michigan State, but didn’t commit a single error against NDSU. Head coach Britt Bonneau says he is happy with how the defense has come around.
“Our defense really came around this weekend, and we really needed to see that,” Bonneau said. “When we play clean in the field, we can put ourselves in good position to win.”
The Wildcat’s main goal, however, is to play every game the same. Crippen said that’s why they decided to have a game Tuesday against the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.
“We look at every game the same,” Crippen said. “We just want to play the best baseball we can. Having a game Tuesday helped us perfect that idea.”
Indeed it did, as the bats worked against UT-PB as ACU got its fourth straight win, 13-5. The clear star on the offensive side was junior catcher/designated hitter Luis Trevino, who has been on fire so far this season. Against UT-PB, Trevino went 3-for-4 with two doubles and five RBIs, the most by a Wildcat since Crippen did it in 2015.
Trevino has been struggling with an injury that has moved him to the DH spot, but it’s been working as Trevino is hitting .467 with 12 RBI’s and six Extra-Base hits.
With the weekday game behind them, Crippen said the goal is to ride the momentum of the last four games into the weekend.
“We are excited to get going again this weekend,” Crippen said, “And we hope to get a few more wins under our belt.”
The Wildcats will be back in action this weekend when they host Creighton in a three-game series at Crutcher Scott Field. The series will open Friday at 6 p.m., and continue with games Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
