Old Rivals Renew Series

CLEVELAND, Miss. – The Wildcats travel to Delta State for showdown national powers as the rivals open a two game series on Tuesday. It is the first meeting between the two teams since meeting in Abilene to open the 2008 season. 

# 11 ABILENE CHRISTIAN vs. DELTA STATE
MARCH 16-17, 2010 • CLEVELAND, MISS.

FIRST PITCH
ACU heads to Mississippi for a mid-week series with Delta State in a matchup of two national powers. The Wildcats and Statesmen are hooking up for the 20th time in the series history and first time since 2008. ACU is coming off their first series loss of the season after losing 3-of-4 to Southeastern Oklahoma in Durant. DSU fell out of the Collegiate Baseball national polls after losing two of three to Ouachita Baptist over the weekend. The Wildcats continued to stay hot at the plate with three players hitting over .400 for the weekend including Bret Bochsler who raised his average to .419 and hit his third homerun of the season. Junior designated hitter Will Calhoun continued to show why he led the nation in hitting last year at Howard Junior College. Calhoun hit at a .467 clip added three doubles and a homerun. He also drove in six runs over the weekend giving him 20 RBIs on the season.  Aaron Oliver also continued to be a menace on the base paths stealing four more on the weekend giving him 11 on the season. He also hit .474 against the Savage Storm scoring eight runs and adding three doubles in the series.

SERIES HISTORY
Delta State leads the series 12-7. The last time the two teams met was in the season opener in 2008 when both teams were ranked in the top 15. The Wildcats entered the season at No. 5 while the Statesmen were No. 11 to open the season with DSU taking 2-of-3 from ACU. The meeting is between two of the winningest teams in the country since 2000. Central Missouri tops the list while DSU in No. 2, ACU comes in at No. 4 over the past decade with Tampa splitting the Wildcats and Statesmen at No. 3. With all the wins both teams have had their share of post-season meetings as well meeting six times since 2000 in the Regional Tournament.

Designated and Pitching
Junior Will Calhoun has found his groove. The designated hitter is not only one of the top hitters for the Wildcats but has also worked his way as a weekend starter earning a victory in each of his conference starts the last two weekends. Calhoun is listed as the DH still when pitching a rarity in college baseball, but is hitting .464 and has an ERA of 3.58 while going 2-1 on the mound. Over the first three weeks of the season Calhoun worked to find his rhythm as he went 0-1 in three starts with a 5.93 ERA; however for the last three weeks Calhoun has went 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three starts adding 13 strikeouts giving him 21 on the season third most for the Wildcats.

AO=SB
Junior Aaron Oliver has shown his speed in a bunch of ways for the Wildcats early this season. Already Oliver is now 11-for-11 on the base paths even though he missed the series in Kingsville giving him 19 games on the season. He also recorded back-to-back triples against St. Edward's, tying an ACU record for triples in a game. Oliver's speed has been noticed scoring this season a couple times from first and tracking down numerous fly balls from his centerfield position. 

Uechi moves up in the Record Books
Senior shortstop Will Uechi laced a double that skipped by the third base bag and down the left field line for hit #282 making him the all-time leader in hits at ACU and the LSC. Uechi had a great weekend against East Central hitting .467 as he added seven hits giving him 288 all-time. His three doubles over the weekend gives him 50 all-times moving him into fifth. He also scored five runs giving him 184 all-time which ties him for third all-time and just 43 shy of leader Matt Davidson's 227.

Baseball On-Air
Baseball fans can hear the action on KSLI 1280 AM locally in Abilene with pre-game to begin at 5:50 p.m. on Tuesday and 1:50 p.m. on Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday and a 2 p.m. Wednesday. Live Stats will also be made available through ACU's website on Tuesday and Delta State's website on Wednesday.

UP NEXT
ACU will return home and to Lone Star Conference play as they open a four game series with Eastern New Mexico. The Wildcats and Zias split the season series last year in Portales as both teams split the doubleheaders each day. Both of the Wildcat losses were by one-run each in the series just as they were last weekend against Southeastern Oklahoma.