ABILENE - The Abilene Christian baseball team is on the road this weekend in Portales, N.M. for a four-game series against the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds. Game times are Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. All times central.
Eastern New Mexico (9-16) defeated ACU, 6-2, earlier this month as part of the Whitten Inn Classic at Crutcher Scott Field, but have gone 2-11 since then, including 0-8 to start Lone Star Conference play. The Greyhounds were first swept in four games at Tarleton State before losing four more at Cameron.
ACU, meanwhile, has split its two conference series at Incarnate Word and vs. Texas A&M-Kingsville to begin the week 16-13 overall and 4-4 vs. the league.
The Wildcats are tied for fourth place with the Javelinas and Aggies, 3.0 games behind leader West Texas A&M (7-1), and 1.0 behind 5-3 Angelo State and Tarleton State.
ACU won games one and three of the Javelina series thanks in part to the timely hitting of
Chuck Duarte and quality relief pitching of
Clint Cooper, which resulted in his first Lone Star Conference Pitcher of the Week honor.
Cooper delivered 3.0 no-hit innings in game one with five strikeouts, and then he combined with
Austin Palmer for a four-hit 1-0 shutout in game three. The victories lifted Cooper's season record to 4-2.
Cooper's record, however, would not have improved if not for Duarte's walkoff heroics. Duarte in game one smashed a three-run home run over the wall in left to give ACU a 4-1 win, and then in Saturday's nightcap he chopped a bases-loaded infield single in between the pitcher and third baseman.
Even though both Duarte (.455) and
Duncan Blades (.444) hit Kingsville pitching with ease, the remaining Wildcats batted only a shade above .200. ACU crashed hard in the game following Duarte's home run and were shutout 11-0 in game two, and then on Sunday could only score one run behind ace
Aaron Lambrix in game four's 3-1 loss.
Two of the runs scored vs. Lambrix were unearned, which kept his season ERA of 2.42 ranked among the top five in the conference.
Closer-turned-starter
Josh Stone also pitched well over the weekend, holding the Javelinas to one run on six hits through 6.0 innings of work. Stone leads the LSC for the most appearances with 14, and is tied for first with 13 games in relief.
Lambrix (48.1) and Palmer (39.2) rank first and third in number of innings pitched.
