In front of a sold-out crowd of 2,552 ticketed fans at Bullock Brothers Ballpark, the Wildcats were unable to keep up with early runs by Texas Tech University, losing 9-2 Monday night in their first home Power Four game of the season.

“I don’t think we played good enough to beat Texas Tech,” Head Coach Rick McCarty said. “When you do play those guys, a lot of things have to line up right to win.”

The Red Raiders jumped on ACU starter Iain Campa, scoring three in the first inning. Campa, senior right-handed pitcher from El Paso, allowed five runs in 2.2 innings on eight hits. Following that, Tech tacked on four more throughout the game.

On the pitching staff Monday night:

“It’s probably the term I would use: inconsistent at times,” McCarty said.

In this game, the Wildcats managed just five hits. Texas Tech’s freshman starter, Connor Mohan, earned his first win of the season by allowing just two runs on four hits over six innings of work with five strikeouts.

“We certainly have to do a better job at the plate,” McCarty said. “They scored early, and that just gives a pitcher more room to make errors, to be more aggressive. And I thought Mohan did a really good job.”

While the box score appeared one-sided — Tech had 14 hits to ACU’s five — the Wildcats did have some positives.

Reese Borho, sophomore outfielder from Abilene, had a solo homer in the fifth inning, and Sam Hardcastle, junior infielder from Richmond, had an RBI double to score a run in the sixth inning.

“We just took one,” McCarty said. “The bats were not as competitive as they could have been, but again, there are some good positives.”

In addition, some key players — including Maddox Miesse, junior catcher from Adkins, Nick Arias, junior infielder from Tucson, Arizona, and OJ Gonzalez, redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher from Lakeway, among others — were out and are expected to get back healthy soon.

Game two of the series is rescheduled due to weather. A possible mid-May game is expected, although the date remains tentative for now.