The Wildcats (26-16, 11-10) have now lost four weekend series in a row after dropping this weekend’s series 2-1 against Cal Baptist (23-21, 12-9). The Wildcats are now 4-10 in their last 14 and have not won a weekend series since late March.
The team was heading to California off of a fantastic start against 14 ranked Texas Tech earlier in the week. The Wildcats were up 6-0 in the fourth inning before the game was canceled due to severe weather. The game will be resumed at a later date.
In game one, the Lancers would take an early 1-0 lead in the third and add onto that in the fourth scoring three more to make it a 4-0 game. The Wildcats would only grab two hits through the first four innings before they started to get something going in the fifth.
In the top of the inning, freshman infielder Maddox Miesse got on early and made his way to third and would be brought home off a sac fly from junior infielder Crew Parke.
CBU capitalized in the bottom half of the inning adding on 3 more runs extending their lead.
Senior right-hander Breck Eichelberger and junior right-hander Drake Boggan had some solid final innings for the Wildcats allowing a combined one hit and tallying nine strikeouts.
However it would not be enough for the Wildcats as the offense would only score one more run in the game off of an eighth inning RBI single from senior outfielder Grayson Tatrow and the Lancers would take game one on a score of 7-2.
In game two, after two stalled innings, ACU would come out in the third with Parke knocking in a single on the first pitch and with the next AB, freshman outfielder Holden Rook would bring the infielder home to take a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, junior outfielder Logan Britt and Tatrow each grabbed an RBI, adding two more runs to the ACU lead.
The ACU lead did not last long however as the Lancers would smash a grand slam in the fourth and just like that, the Wildcats were down.
Senior left-hander Adam Stephenson came into the game in the fifth and put on a clinic allowing only two hits while striking out five batters.
However, the ACU offense did not help out again until the bottom of the ninth when with two on and two outs Parke delivered an RBI single to send the game into extras.
The veteran Tatrow came up big for the Wildcats in the 10 launching a solo home run to put ACU up one and redshirt-senior right-hander Zach Smith would close out the game for the Wildcats striking out the last three batters giving ACU the 5-4 win in extras.
In the final game of the series, Tatrow picked up right where he left off hitting a solo home run in the first inning to put the Cats up early.
The Lancers responded quickly however, scoring two of their own in the bottom half of the first. CBU would go on to score one more in the second and then five in the fourth and two more in the fifth blowing the game open to make it 10-1. The ACU bullpen would hold the CBU offense stagnant for the remainder of the game.
ACU added one more run in the seventh on an RBI double from junior outfielder Miller Ladusau.
In the bottom of the ninth Tatrow would smash his second home run of the day, his 15th of the season, and Ladusau would also knock in a two run homer, but the late inning rally would fall short and the Wildcats would drop the series finale 10-5.
The Wildcats are back at home this week to face Baylor in game two of this season’s home-and-home series with the Bears. ACU took the first game in Waco earlier this season 5-2 in an extra inning thriller. The game will be at 6:05 p.m. on Tuesday at Crutcher Scott Field with the game streaming live on ESPN+.
Quotes will be added following head coach Rick McCarty’s next press conference.
