Coming into this past weekend ACU baseball was 4-4 in conference play while Nicholls had yet to lose a conference game.
“Nicholls came off a good weekend against SFA sweeping them,” said sophomore catcher Mitchell Dickson. “Nicholls is a team that is aggressive on the base paths and uses the short often. We went in knowing if we were able to jump out to an early lead we would be able to take away their primary source of offense.”
Friday night Nicholls got the early lead in the first three innings leading ACU 6-1. Three runs scored in the fourth inning by freshman second baseman Brett Hammit, freshman left fielder Miller Ladusau, and freshman shortstop Sebastian Randle brought the game within one point. ACU ultimately lost the first game of the series 6-7 taking their first Friday loss of the season.
“Friday was a tough loss,” said head coach Mike McCarty. “We always talk about being able to respond and move forward in our program. That’s exactly what we did on Saturday.”
ACU took an early lead during the first Saturday game in the second inning with junior first baseman Hunter Gieser scoring the first run off of a home run followed by a score by Ladusau later that inning. ACU ultimately won the first game 4-1 giving Nicholls their first conference loss of the season.
“One of the best traits of the team is that we never panic,” said Hammit. “Even when we are down, we know that all it takes is one inning for us to get rolling.”
During the second game of the doubleheader, Nicholls took the early lead in the first inning scoring four points with ACU responding shortly after in the second inning with five of their own points. ACU won the game 6-5 after Nicholls tied it in the eighth, and ACU scored a last minute walk off resulting in Dickson scoring the winning run.
Coming into the fourth game of the series ACU led by one after winning both Saturday games. ACU came out of the gates swinging with an early 2-0 lead that was then tied in the third inning by Nicholls. Nicholls then continued with four more runs by the sixth inning making it 6-2. ACU was not able to come back from the deficit and lost the game 7-4.
With this loss on Sunday, the series against Nicholls was split 2-2. ACU’s next series begins night, Mar 26 at 6:30 p.m. against the University of New Orleans. The privateers will be hosting the four game series in New Orleans. UNO is currently 11-9 coming off a series split against SFA.
