The Wildcats will play their first home series of the 2025 season against Youngstown State University starting on Saturday.

With freezing temperatures and a high of just 38 degrees, the first game of the four-game series on Friday has been canceled. 

Head Coach Rick McCarty said the weather poses an added challenge to the game but is not something that should worsen his team’s performance or serve as an excuse. 

“We want to be a tough baseball team,” McCarty said. “Playing in the elements is certainly part of that. Sometimes when it’s a little bit uncomfortable, softer guys have a tendency to not play as well.”

The first home series for the Wildcats will give them a chance to get back to winning; something they have not done since game one of the season where they had an extra-innings win against the defending Big Ten champion, the Illinois Fighting Illini. 

Though the team comes back to Abilene with just one win in the 2025 season, McCarty said it can serve the team as a “signature win” and give the players confidence in their abilities individually and as a team. 

“It was great for the first-year guys to get that win,” McCarty said. “Especially the way we did it, coming back in that game showed a lot of fight and resolve.” 

McCarty attributed part of the team’s rough start to having a few rough innings from a pitching perspective. The team has given up at least four runs in a single inning five times this season, including a six-run eighth inning in the final game against Illinois and two five-run innings versus the University of the Incarnate Word, where the team lost 11-7. 

“We’ve given up four or five big innings that have probably flipped our record,” McCarty said. “I think we can figure that out, which I am confident we will.”

The Wildcats also have several new players this season who have played a significant portion of the first four games. 

Nick Arias, junior infielder from Tucson, Arizona, transferred to ACU from Pima Community College and is currently leading the Wildcats with a .474 batting average, nine hits and seven RBI in his 19 at-bats. 

Diego Cardenas, junior infielder from El Paso, transferred to ACU from El Paso Community College and has reached base safely 10 times so far this season, including the team’s lone home run and five walks. 

Freshmen Brady Gray, catcher from Farmersville, and Braden Regala, outfielder from Abilene, both tallied three hits in the team’s first four games, batting .333 and .300 respectively. 

“We’ve got a good group of baseball players,” McCarty said. “Those guys have played a lot of baseball, especially coming from the Juco ranks. Sometimes it’s an easier transition than from a high school player. I felt like they jumped in and did a really good job of putting together good at-bats last week.”

Putting together quality at-bats and working the pitch count will be keys for the Wildcats this weekend. McCarty said if the team can continue to do those things and put it together with quality starting pitching, it will be successful. 

“It always starts with starting pitching,” McCarty said. “That’s got a chance to be our strength this season.”

McCarty also said the team will need to figure out the bullpen: which pitchers should pitch when and what matchups they will look to take advantage of. 

“There’s going to be some growing moments,” McCarty said. “We’ll have some different lineups too, looking at our players versus the left-handed pitching and versus the right-handed pitching.” 

When it comes to the series with YSU, McCarty is looking for his team to continue to pitch well early and allow for the offense to get on top early. 

“We need guys to go out there and go over the plate with good stuff,” McCarty said. “If they hold the opponent down enough for our offense to get in front, I think that has a chance to be a strength for our team.” 

Despite the weather and game schedule, the team will start its normal rotation: Dominick Reid, junior from Little Elm, Brett Lanman, sophomore from Fairview, and Cade McGarrh, junior from Frisco. 

McCarty said the batting lineup is to be determined because of what YSU may do with their pitching rotation. 

“I think there’s a ton of momentum around our program right now,” McCarty said. “We’re super excited about the facility opening up and while the weather’s not going to be great this weekend, I hope there’s still some folks here that come out that are curious to watch this team play.”

With the cancellation of game one on Friday due to cold weather, the first two games of the series will be played on Saturday at noon and 4 p.m. The third and final, game of the series will be played Sunday at 11 a.m.