After coming off of a season-opening series victory, the Wildcats came up short Thursday night against Oklahoma State, falling 8-4 at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
Senior right-hander Rolando De La Cruz would take the mound as the starter for the Cats and would unfortunately find himself in an early hole. Three walks, two balks and a hit-by-pitch allowed the Pokes to plate three runs before the first three outs were recorded.
In the bottom of the first, the Wildcats would load up the bases on the first three batters after a single from senior infielder Garrett Williams, followed by a walk from senior outfielder Miller Ladusau, then a single from junior infielder DJ Van Atten.
Despite loading up the bases with no outs, ACU was only able to score one off of an RBI single from sophomore catcher Maddox Miesse.
The ACU bats remained hot in the top of the second with back-to-back singles from sophomore infielder Cade McGarrh and junior infielder Zandt Payne. Williams would rack in an RBI single to bring home Payne and Ladusau would grab his second hit of the game to load up the bases once again. On the next at-bat, Van Atten would knock a single into left for an RBI and tie the game at three a piece.
Graduate utility player Gino D’Alessio would add a sacrifice fly to bring home Williams and give ACU the 4-3 lead. Once again however, the Cats would leave runs on the board, ending the inning with the base loaded once again.
OSU would tie the game in the third off of an RBI double, and retake the lead off a sac-fly in the fourth to go up 5-4.
After their eight hits over the first two innings, the Wildcats would go hitless over the next five innings, grabbing only one more hit for the remainder of the game. This allowed the Pokes to extend their lead in the top of the seventh after back-to-back RBI singles and three-straight fly-outs in the ninth would close out the game for the Pokes and Oklahoma State would take the 8-4 win.
ACU finished with four runs on nine hits with two errors while Oklahoma State closed out the game with eight runs on seven hits with one error. The Wildcat pitchers struck out 13 batters but gave up nine walks as well. Van Atten, Williams and McGarrh all led the team with two hits apiece.
The team is back in action this weekend when they host Penn for a four-game series at Crutcher Scott Field with 3:05 p.m. first pitch for Friday’s opener.
