The Wildcats dropped their first midweek contest of the season Tuesday night, falling to the Dallas Baptist Patriots 12-3 at Horner Ballpark, moving to 3-2 on the year.

DBU wasted no time setting the tone.

Jake Bennett’s first homer of the night, a two-run shot to right-center on an outside changeup in the bottom of the first, staked DBU to an early lead. The Patriots continued to pile on, with a sacrifice fly, a two-run double, and a wild pitch extending the margin to 6-1 after three innings. An RBI single in the fourth pushed it to 7-1, and by then, DBU had firm control of the game.

ACU managed to scratch two runs across in the sixth, but the Patriots answered immediately with two of their own. Bennett then put the game firmly out of reach with his fourth home run of the season, leading off the eighth, his second of the night. DBU won going away, 12-3.

The Patriots’ pitching staff sent a different arm to the mound each inning after the third and held the Wildcats largely in check throughout, just allowing 2 runs after the 1st inning homer from Zandt Payne.

ACU head coach Rick McCarty said his message heading into the contest was straightforward.

“We’re going to try to win the first inning … win the first three, win the middle three, win the last three,” McCarty said. “When you don’t, you get exposed fast. A team like DBU can certainly do that.”

McCarty was quick to credit DBU head coach Dan Heefner and the Patriots program.

“They’re as balanced as anyone in the country,” McCarty said. “Dan runs a first-class program.”

Defense has been an issue through ACU’s first five games. After flagging the problem following last weekend’s opening series, where McCarty said the Wildcats “didn’t do what we have traditionally done on the defensive side of things,” the team committed two more errors Tuesday night at Horner Ballpark.

The total now stands at nine errors in five games, nearly two per contest, a rate that will be difficult to sustain against the caliber of opponents on ACU’s schedule.

“To beat good teams, you can’t give them more outs,” McCarty said.

The Wildcats now return home to face Oral Roberts in a three-game weekend series beginning Friday. McCarty said these early weeks are about identity and figuring out “who’s going to show up when the lights turn on.”

First pitch Friday is set for 3 p.m. at Crutcher Scott Field in Abilene.