A week after defeating TCU in extra innings, the Wildcats took on another Power Five opponent in Texas A&M, but were overcome by big second and seventh innings, 8-2.
The No. 18 Aggies scored three in the second inning on a three-run home run from Cole Bedford and took a 4-0 lead in the third on Will Frizzell’s RBI single. The score remained that way until the seventh inning when ACU cut into the lead with a groundout from junior Derek Scott that scored JuCo transfer Riley Donahue, making the score 4-1. But five hits from the Aggies and one error by the Wildcat defense in the bottom half of the inning extended the lead to 8-1.
“It’s always fun to go to A&M and play and it’s always fun to play a ranked team,” Head Coach Britt Bonneau said. “I think it’s good for our program. But I thought we handled ourselves really well, I thought we played good defense. They threw some good pitchers at us and we were able to get on the board in the seventh and eighth inning.”
ACU did get one back in the eighth after JuCo transfer Matt Munoz doubled with two outs and junior Koby Claborn walked with the bases loaded to score Munoz. But the Wildcats couldn’t do any more damage in the inning and went down in order in the ninth.
“We’ve been playing some really good baseball lately, our defense, our pitchers have done a good job, our hitters have battled their tails off lately,” Bonneau said.
The loss drops ACU to 19-20 on the season, but the Wildcats will look to get back above .500 when they take a break from conference play to take on Siena. Bonneau said despite Tuesday’s loss, the tough midweek games do a good job of getting the team ready for the weekend.
“Just being able to play at that level, it takes your game to another level and that’s always good to prepare you for a weekend series,” Bonneau said.
The Saints are in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and enter the game at 10-28 overall and 8-7 in conference play. In terms, of similar opponents played, the Wildcats have the edge having swept another MAAC competitor in Quinnipiac to start the season, while Siena dropped two of three to the Bobcats.
“It’s a good break for us to kind of get reloaded and catch our breath and really finish strong,” Bonneau said. “Hopefully having these home games coming [up] will benefit us. We just have to keep raising our level of play up.”
Due to weather conditions Sunday’s game has been moved up, so the teams will play a double-header on Friday and one on Saturday. Friday’s start time is set for 11 a.m.
