Since its creation in 1962, the WAC has been the home of over 40 collegiate programs, including Hawaii, Arizona and the United States Air Force Academy. But after only five seasons of ACU being in the conference, the WAC is set to rebrand as the United Athletic Conference on July 1.

Of course, the Wildcats are quite familiar with conference shifts, going back all the way to their time in Division II.

ACU to Division I

ACU had a lot of success at the Division II level, racking up an astounding 57 national championships and 167 Lone Star Conference titles. But after 40 years, the university decided to move up to Division I in 2013.

Julie Goodenough, the head coach of the women’s basketball team, was one year into her tenure when the move took place. When she was hired, she knew that the university was already slated to advance to Division I and began to plan accordingly.

“We were just going to run it like a D-I program from the beginning,” Goodenough said.

In women’s basketball, the Wildcats went out with a bang, winning the Lone Star Conference regular season title in their final year.

But as the university made the switch, there were a few growing pains. The new schedule for the team, coming to campus earlier in the year for practices, and other changes required shifts by the university. From housing to additional summer classes, the university needed to make additional changes in order to support teams as they began to get acclimated to Division I.

“So there have been a lot of changes that the school had to get on board with,” Goodenough said. “So certainly it’s not just a decision that impacts your athletic department, but it impacts the entire university.”

Early D-I Success

At the time, when a collegiate program shifted from Division II to Division I, there was a four-year reclassification period. During this time, the university was ineligible for postseason play in conference and national championships.

In their 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons in the Southland Conference, the Wildcats took the conference regular season title in women’s basketball. However, because of the NCAA regulation, they were not able to compete in the Southland Conference Tournament.

In 2019 however, things were very much in the Wildcats’ favor. Both basketball teams won the Southland Conference Tournament and received automatic bids in the NCAA Tournaments. The women’s team, under the direction of Goodenough, made the team’s first March Madness appearance in program history.

“You know the first Southland Tournament championship and first opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament, it was pretty fulfilling to be a part of that,” Goodenough said.

That same year, the men’s team, which was led by Head Coach Joe Golding, made it to the NCAA Tournament. Two years later, the team would go back to the NCAA Tournament and upset Texas in a nail-biting showdown that went to the final minutes of regulation.

Other programs at ACU also saw great success in the Southland. In 2021, the baseball team, under the leadership of current head coach Rick McCarty, won the Southland Conference regular season title.

The Shift to the WAC

During the 2020-2021 academic year however, the university began to discuss the possibility of shifting conferences. In conjunction with three other Texas teams, Lamar, Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin, ACU made the official transition to the WAC on July 1, 2021.

According to Goodenough, the athletic administration at ACU felt like the Southland was “going in a downward direction” and wanted to align with schools with similar resources. Additionally, another big factor that encouraged this move was the travel for the teams to get to away games.

“Both leagues are totally different due to geography,” McCarty said.

With the addition of four collegiate programs from Texas, the WAC grew to a total of 12 teams. However over time, the teams within the conference began to shift. Since 2022, the WAC lost two teams every year as schools moved between conferences.

The teams that left are as follows:

Chicago State and Lamar, 2022

New Mexico State and Sam Houston State, 2023

Stephen F. Austin and UT Rio Grande Valley, 2024

Grand Canyon and Seattle, 2025

Heading into the 2025-26 season, there were seven total teams in the WAC, with the Utah Valley already making moves to leave the conference. With this increasing necessity to have enough teams to compete, talks began about what to do.

Origins of the UAC

The UAC was formed as a football partnership between the Western Athletic Conference and the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2023.

In order to receive an automatic qualifier in the FCS postseason, a conference must have at least 6 teams competing. After both conferences separately began to sponsor football in 2021, neither conference had enough teams to independently qualify for a spot in the postseason.

So in 2023, the two conferences created the UAC to allow their football-playing schools to compete and have a shot in the FCS playoffs.

After seeing the success of the UAC in football, and with the dwindling number of WAC teams, talks began about what the best course of action would be. ACU’s Athletic Department began to consider several other conference options.

However, the final decision was to stay with the WAC as it would transition to become the UAC. The conference will now become an all-sports conference rather than the football-only conference it was created to be. Evan Nemec, assistant AD for media relations, had been hearing rumors of what the plan would be before it was initially announced that the school would go to the UAC.

“It was a surprise when I found out that was what the plan was,” Nemec said. “But it makes sense from an efficiency stand point for the two conferences to work together. I think the big message is there’s more power in numbers.”

That decision was primarily made by Zack Lassiter, vice president for athletics, and Dr. Phil Schubert. Schubert, as the president of the university, is very involved in athletics and understands its value to the university as a whole. This decision though, was made without many conversations with the coaches of each of the programs on campus.

“I wasn’t really involved in it,” McCarty said. “So you just kind of play the game that you have to play in terms of the conference.

Goodenough seconded this opinion saying that she felt like the decision was made with the best interests of the teams in mind. She expressed that this shift was not a “knee jerk reaction” and was carefully considered by leadership.

“I think the athletic director and all their administrators as well as Dr. Schubert have always been super thoughtful and very meticulous about what’s best for our athletic department but also be in alignment with the standards of ACU in general,” Goodenough said.

In July of this year, the UAC will welcome three WAC teams that are following the conference, Abilene Christian, UT Arlington and Tarleton State. Additionally, five schools from the ASUN, those that sponsor football programs, will also be joining the conference; Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, West Georgia and Central Arkansas. West Florida will also be joining the WAC as a football-playing affiliate. Furthermore, Arkansas-Little Rock is also set to join the conference but they will not compete in football.

With new opponents on the calendar, the teams have already been looking ahead to get ready for the first season of UAC play. Ijeoma Moronu Alstrup, head coach of the volleyball team, said they have already been looking at who their new opponents will be.

“We’ve started just kind of looking at who was most successful in their conference last year and what we would need to do to compete with them,” Alstrup said.

Another change that comes with playing new teams is traveling to different locations to play. Goodenough said that the travel side of things is going to be “completely different” in the new conference.

“I mean it’ll be all new territory and our director of operations is our travel coordinator and she’s gonna have a lot of new things to do,” Goodenough said.

But with the spring seasons winding down, the teams are set to have their summer breaks before getting right back into the swing of things in their first year in the UAC.

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The university announced the change Monday and said in a statement from Vice President for Athletics Zack Lassiter that Shaw had a huge impact on the ACU program:

“We are incredibly grateful to Coach Shaw for his 12 years of dedication and service to ACU,” Lassiter said. “He has made a lasting impact on our student-athletes and our program, both on and off the course. We appreciate the leadership, integrity and commitment he has shown throughout his time here and wish him the very best moving forward.”

Shaw led the Wildcats through the transition to Division I in 2014 and to a 2022 Western Athletic Conference championship, but in recent seasons the team has shown some inconsistency.

The Wildcats finished third in the final season of WAC play after placing fifth in each of the previous two seasons (2023–24 and 2024–25) and eighth in 2022–23.

The university also said a national search for the program’s next head coach has already started.

This is the latest leadership change at ACU. Most recently, Jo Koons was hired as head softball coach on June 27, 2024, following the dismissal of Abigail Farler on May 7.

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Regala grew up wanting to play soccer in college, but as he got older he fell more in love with baseball, the team aspect of it, and playing on both sides of the ball and realized he wanted to play college baseball.

After this realization, the question of where he would play then arose for him. With no Division I offers, he turned to the head coach of the Division I baseball program in his hometown of Abilene, Rick McCarty.

McCarty was no stranger to Regala on and off the baseball field. McCarty said he watched him play high school football on Friday nights at Wylie High School while watching his daughter, who is a year younger than Regala, be a cheerleader.

He also added that his son played Little League baseball with Regala’s younger brother, Dylan, and made it to the Little League World Series.

“There’s a lot of crossover with family, community, events and all those things,” McCarty said. “I’ve gotten to see Braden for eight years now. So just to watch him mature has been pretty neat.”

Once Regala discovered ACU and McCarty’s culture, he fell in love with it, and he knew he wanted to grow his faith at ACU and become a better baseball player.

At 5-foot-8, Regala is undersized for his position compared to the typical Division I outfielder. He has not let this stop him.

“I kind of use it as motivation,” he said. “Just to also speak to other kids that are younger that size doesn’t really matter in baseball. You can achieve your goals, no matter how big or small you are.”

Despite Regala’s size, McCarty said he has a lot of things going for him, including being a switch hitter, his speed and his short game defensively.

When Regala arrived for his freshman season, he was not the only former Wylie Bulldog on the roster. Fellow outfielder Reese Borho, a year older than Regala, had already been on the roster for a year.

In his freshman campaign, Regala stood out as the team’s starting center fielder, batting .295, leading the team in stolen bases with 29, recording an on-base percentage of .342 and earning the No. 3 spot on a SportsCenter Top 10 for a diving catch against Dallas Baptist.

McCarty said off the field, Regala checks all the boxes and represents the team well in the community.

“He’s got this smile,” he said. “He’s one of those guys when you walk in the room, the temperature kind of goes up because he’s just got a good personality.”

After his freshman season, he and Borho were joined by another former Bulldog, senior infielder JT Thompson. Thompson joined the Wildcats after two seasons at Ranger College and one season at Rutgers.

From Little League baseball to varsity football, it has been a long time coming for these three to play together at the collegiate level.

Borho, who committed to ACU a year before Regala, knew they would be playing together at ACU, but it was a pleasant surprise when Thompson called Borho last summer to tell him he was coming back to Abilene.

Regala recalls the first time all three of them played together was his sophomore year of high school when they were on the varsity football team together at Wylie.

“That was kind of the first time we were all three together,” Regala said. “That kind of carried over into baseball and started building a tighter bond to each other.”

One moment the trio had this year was when all three were in the outfield together and created an “all Wylie outfield,” as Regala called it.

Thompson said it was awesome not only for them but for their parents, who have known each other for years.

“My mom comes up to me after the game and hugs me,” he said. “She shows me a picture as soon as the game’s over, and we’re all dancing in the outfield after a win. Like it should be. All the Wylie boys.”

Another full-circle moment these three had this season was when the Wylie Little League came to Bullock Brothers Ballpark for a night of practice with the Wildcats.

Thompson described it as a déjà vu moment for them growing up in Abilene, going to ACU games and wanting to play for the Wildcats.

“It’s awesome to leave an impact on those kids,” Regala said. “Just driving around being from Abilene, it’s nice to go to a restaurant and see one of those kids and they remember your name. Just getting to talk to them and encourage them and be a role model for them. It’s pretty neat.”

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With the game tied and bases loaded for the Trailblazers, Ella Beeman, junior right-handed pitcher from Lowell, Arkansas, came into pitch. Beeman walked the game-winning run in on her first batter.

In the top of the seventh inning, the Wildcats failed to record a hit, flying out, grounding out and striking out to lose the game and close out the season.

“It really wasn’t any different than what has happened all year, unfortunately,” head coach Jo Koons said. “We need to do a better job on defense, just clutching up in those moments, and it starts in the circle.”

With the loss, ACU fell to 7-41 on the season and 4-14 in the Western Athletic Conference, putting them in seventh place in the standings, one spot behind the Trailblazers, which caused them to miss the conference tournament by one game.

The must-win series for the Wildcats began with a win in their first game on Friday, winning 13-10 in eight innings. Friday’s second game was a different story as ACU lost 6-3.

Pitching was a problem not just in this series but has been an area of struggle all season. The team’s ERA among the team’s five pitchers is 8.77.

“When you’re not getting what you want, you gotta do it differently,” Koons said. “[The] weight room will be a big piece of that, getting them to be able to sustain longer conditioning.”

The team’s record was worse than Koons’ first season last year, which was 15-38 and ended with a first-round exit in the WAC tournament as the fifth seed.

Despite missing the WAC tournament this season, she said this season will give the returners for next season a great foundation to build on and “heal them into next season.”

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Ahead of the tournament, the Wildcats had finished fifth at the Robert Kepler Invitational, hosted by Ohio State University, and won the Seattle University Redhawk Invitational.

“We felt pretty good going into it,” head coach Tom Shaw said. “We felt that we were one of the best teams there. We showed that during the entire tournament. Unfortunately, it we came up short.”

With three holes to play on the final round of the tournament, the Wildcats were tied for the lead. The wind conditions had changed significantly from day to day, making some holes more attackable and the back three holes particularly challenging.

“It made some holes easier, but it made the closing holes really hard,” Shaw said. “We knew that going in and were prepared for it.”

The Wildcats shot a team total 16-over par after posting a 1-over final round. Thomas Buisson, senior from Bordeaux, France, led the team at 2-under on the final day, while Gregoire Hoyeau, senior from Paris, France, led the Wildcats at 2-over on the tournament. Hoyeau finished sixth individually, good for his second consecutive top-10 finish at Stonebridge and his fourth top-10 of the season.

“Greg’s a special guy,” Shaw said. “He’s just a true golfer. Doesn’t matter if he’s hitting it good or bad; he gives you everything he has. At the end of the week, every tournament, he left nothing out there, and that’s all you can ask for as a coach.”

The team trailed UT Arlington by three strokes after the first day but fell to third place after round two, as the Tarleton State Texans posted a tournament-low even-par second round. Both the Wildcats and the Mavericks shot 8-over on day two before each shooting 1-over on the final round.

“I was just trying to treat it like any other tournament,” Hoyeau said. “Obviously, it’s the conference championship, so there’s always that added pressure because we want to qualify for the NCAA tournament.”

Hoyeau, playing in his final WAC tournament, said he’s thankful for both ACU and the team. The Frenchman played all four seasons in Abilene, working his way from the bottom of the program to the top.

“It’s unbelievable,” Hoyeau said. “So many memories. I’m forever grateful for coach giving me the opportunity and just being able to grow around my teammates. Building relationships and friendships that will last forever. It’s just been amazing.”

Hoyeau also looked back at his struggles as a freshman, finishing at the back of the team’s qualifiers and rarely seeing tournament play.

“My first semester at ACU, I didn’t play a single tournament,” Hoyeau said. “Going from that to the semester after qualifying for tournaments, then the year after starting to get top tens, the year after getting All-WAC Second Team, then this year getting the win. The trajectory has just been incredible.

In addition to Hoyeau, the Wildcats will graduate three. Buisson, Niklas Blalock from McGregor, and Tres Hill, graduate from Elk City, Oklahoma.

“Greg and Thomas have been here the longest, and both have been great players,” Shaw said. “Tres has been here one year, but he’s like a million years old, and wise. Nik has been here for two years and is just a great team player.”

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The team’s run was highlighted by a 4-0 sweep over Utah Tech, securing a spot in the championship match and marking a milestone moment for the program. While the Wildcats ultimately fell short in the final, the season was still one of the most successful in program history, defined by strong leadership, team chemistry and consistent performance throughout the year. 

Head coach Bryan Rainwater said the season was especially meaningful because of the group of seniors who helped lead the team. 

“It’s a special year with this team because of our four seniors,” Rainwater said. “Just a really special place in our heart in our family here with the team.” 

He said the team’s growth throughout the season was one of the most rewarding aspects. 

“By the end of the season, the girls came together, and really were a family, and I think that that’s the type of culture we’ve been wanting to build,” Rainwater said. 

The wildcats met their expectations by reaching the final, though the goal was to go even further. 

“Really good to be in the finals and have our best year was kind of our expectation,” he said.

Alice Klinteby, senior psychology major from Sweden, said the team’s experience and determination played a major role in its success. 

“We have four seniors, so it’s like an older team, and I think all the seniors really wanted to do good in their last year,” Klinteby said. “We have a really great team that wants to work hard, and we’re always pushing each other, and I think that really transferred into this season.”

Klinteby described the semifinal win over Utah Tech as a defining moment. 

“Everyone was nervous because we knew we could make it this time, but we trusted all the hard work we had been doing,” she said. “When we beat Utah Tech, of course, it felt great.”

With four seniors graduating, the wildcats will look different next season, but Rainwater said the program is already preparing for the future. He said he expects returning players and incoming freshmen to step into larger roles while continuing to build on the culture established this year.

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With the series loss, ACU now sits at 6-39 on the season and 3-12 in conference play, putting them last in the Western Athletic Conference.

In a doubleheader on Friday, the Wildcats lost their first game 13-0 and their second game 10-3 and finished the series with a 10-0 loss in five innings due to the run rule.

ACU struggled offensively throughout the weekend, being outscored 33-3 by the Lancers. Another struggle for the Wildcats was pitching, having a combined seven strikeouts in the series.

CBU started hot in the first game on Friday, scoring four runs in the first inning to take a 4-0 lead before going scoreless until the fourth inning, when they scored three more runs to make the lead 7-0. The Lancers closed it out in the seventh inning with six more runs to win the game 13-0.

ACU failed to record a hit until the fourth inning and recorded only four hits for the entire game.

“Honestly, offensively we got shut out,” head coach Jo Koons said. “That’s been our strength all year. So, without having a chance to score runs, it’s tough to win any games.”

On the mound, ACU struggled with its two pitchers, Alissa Snipes and Lindsey Oliver. Snipes, freshman right-handed pitcher from Chico, California, started the game, giving up seven earned runs in the 26 batters she faced, only striking out two of them in four innings.

Oliver, right-handed pitcher from Watuga, finished the game after coming in for Snipes and gave up six earned runs in the 17 batters she faced, striking out only one.

Friday’s second game got off to a similar start as the first, as the Lancers took a 3-0 lead in the first inning. This time, ACU answered with their first run of the series that came from Ciana Arguijo, freshman utility player from Round Rock, who scored from third base on a fly out.

The Wildcats went on to score two more runs, one in the third inning and the other in the fourth inning.

Ella Beeman, junior right-handed pitcher from Lowell, Arkansas, started the game for ACU. She gave up eight earned runs in the 25 batters she faced and had only one strikeout in three innings.

Makayla Valle, junior right-handed pitcher from Aurora, Colorado, came in for Beeman and gave up only one earned run with 18 batters faced.

Saturday’s game started scoreless through the first two innings before CBU took a commanding lead in the top of the third inning when the Lancers scored seven runs.

Valle came in for Leah Meyer, junior right-handed pitcher from Ocala, Florida, after Meyer gave up six earned runs. Valle finished the inning before Beeman substituted for her at the top of the fourth inning.

Beeman gave up three earned runs and recorded one run in the two innings she pitched.

ACU will travel to Utah to face the Utah Tech Trailblazers in its final regular-season series, with a doubleheader on Friday and the final game on Saturday. Both teams enter the game with a 3-12 conference record, meaning the winner of the series will claim the final spot in the WAC tournament.

However, despite the Trailblazers having the same conference record as ACU, they have a 16-31 overall record.

“To still have a shot this late in the year, it’s worthy of something,” Koons said. “You just have to get there because once you get there, it’s house money at that point.”

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The big storyline of the game was pitching.

Collin Adams, junior left-hander from Lebanon, Tennessee, opened the game and went two shutout innings for the Wildcats. Baron Mannis, true freshman left-hander from Argyle, followed, going another two shutout innings with three strikeouts.

After that, it was downhill for the Wildcats. DBU went on to score four runs in the third against David Jeon, senior right-hander from Coppell, who did not record an out in his outing. Four of the next six guys out to the pen for ACU gave up a run, using nine pitchers in eight innings.

“We’re still searching for consistency,” head coach Rick McCarty said. “You bump guys up into bigger situations, and then you’re just not over the plate, and the inning blows up.”

Despite the struggling pitching, ACU did have some moments offensively.

Bouncing out to an early lead in the first inning, highlighted by JT Thompson’s two-RBI single and freshman outfielder from  Heath, Brady Ladusau’s RBI single to left, the early traffic gave an early chance for ACU to take control.

“I honestly don’t think the score is indicative of the score,” McCarty said. “If we get a couple hits there with all that traffic early, then we’re probably in a fistfight.”

Continuing to stay hot and on an eight-game hitting streak, JT Thompson, senior infielder from Wylie, has been a spark this season, now batting .328.

“He’s just putting together good at-bats,” McCarty said. “When you’re doing that, success normally follows.”

Now the focus shifts back to conference play as the Wildcats are set for a three-game series against Sacramento State, which they played in the Western Athletic Conference championship game last season and lost. Sacramento State has been in a similar circumstance as ACU, bouncing off elite success with a now around .500 record, ACU at 21-23 and CSUS at 21-25.

McCarty said he looks to “wash this one off” and regroup before facing a lot of in-conference games, but said at the end of the day, the loss was a learning experience.

“They got better tonight,” McCarty said. “I don’t love how we got better… If we look back at the end of the week and we’re 3-1, I’ll take it.”

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The now three-year-old program has finished as the conference runner-up each of its first three seasons. Head Coach Rob Bennett said that it is both a point of encouragement and something he was hoping to change heading into the team’s third WAC tournament.

“Right now, it’s hard for me to be positive about it,” Bennett said. “But I am grateful that we had the opportunity to win all three years… We’ve had chances to win. We just haven’t done it. I’m grateful for the chances to win, but I’m ready to win.”

The Wildcats had three players finish in the top 5 of the field. Maddi Kamas finished tied for second at 3-over par, while Ryann Honea and Kate Pickrell finished tied for fifth at 7-over par.

“Maddie is so calm and confident,” Bennett said. “She kept everybody loose and had a lot of fun. That was something we needed.”

Kamas, graduate from Ardmore, Oklahoma, started the tournament hot. Playing in her fifth conference tournament after winning the conference four times at Oklahoma City University, Kamas ended round one 3-under par and at the top of the leaderboard.

“This was my fifth year,” Kamas said. “I’ve been at four other conference tournaments, and we’d won all four at OCU. I also won four times individually, so I just went into it with the mindset of ‘why not make it another one, you know, go out with a bang.’”

Day two of the tournament was delayed, pushing the Wildcats’ tee times to nearly 2 p.m. In addition to the delay, the course played much softer with the wet conditions. Due to the weather, players were permitted to play “lift, clean and place,” meaning they could pick up, clean and hand-place the golf ball before each stroke.

“The course definitely got softer because of all the rain,” Bennett said. “ We ended up playing lift, clean and place… I don’t particularly love that because if you have a bad lie in the rough, you could pick it up and then you could have a good lie in the rough after you put it back down.”

Honea, senior from San Angelo, led the Wildcats on day two, shooting 3-under par and entering the final round at even par through 36 holes. Honea secured six birdies in her second round, including three from holes 12 to 17.

“Ryann’s been great for us for three years,” Bennett said. “It’s hard when you’ve had such success like Ryann. I know she really wanted to win one as a team.”

Pickrell, junior from Austin, shone for the Wildcats on the final 18 holes. She posted a 1-over card on the final 18 holes, good for sixth on the day and pushing her into the top five overall.

“Kate has really been trending this semester, and I’m not surprised to see it,” Bennett said. “I told her after the event, this is her team to lead now. I’m really proud of her. It’s not always just about golf scores.”

While the team hoped for more ahead of its third WAC tournament, Kamas said Bennett told the team how proud he was and how much they’ve accomplished as one of the youngest programs in the country.

Now, in post-team play, the Wildcats will look to send Honea to an NCAA regional tournament for the third time in as many years. The NCAA selection show will take place at Noon on Wednesday. Last season, Honea tied for 41st in her regional appearance at the Rawls Course in Lubbock. To conclude the 2023-’24 season, Honea finished 50th at the Bryan Regional as a sophomore.

“She’s the best player in our school’s history,” Bennett said. “She would probably be the best player in a lot of schools’ history, even power four schools.”

Both Honea and Kamas are playing in their final season with the team. Honea will graduate having played as a Wildcat for three years, while Kamas played for one.

“I think it was a really good year,” Kamas said. “I’m really glad I was able to end my career here.”

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After four straight games in which ACU baseball squared off against Power 4 competition in six days, the Wildcats dropped the finale, 9-1, to Texas Tech on Wednesday night at the Crutch, putting them at 1-3 during the stretch.

Well, at least until April 28, when they face a formidable Dallas Baptist team for their final “powerhouse” opponent of the regular season.

One thing head coach Rick McCarty said entering this stretch of play was that the Wildcats had to play their best brand of baseball, beginning with the starting pitching – something that did not happen in this game.

Wildcats opener Collin Adams, junior left-handed pitcher from Lebanon, Tennessee, allowed five runs in the first inning on four hits, including a two-out, three-run home run to left field by Matt Quintanar.

“I didn’t think Collin was bad to start,” McCarty said. “They’ve got a really good offense. When you line their hitters up against the best in the country, they’re right there at the top of a lot of categories.”

As expected from the Red Raiders, that early deficit proved a big feat to overcome.

Still, there were some positives for the Wildcats, as three pitchers – Logan Young, Baron Mannis and Carson Wallace – combined for five shutout innings after the big blow while scattering five hits and two walks.

“I thought some guys came in behind him, did a good job of going inside the zone, made some pitches when they had to make some pitches,” McCarty said. “We just didn’t do enough offense, didn’t win enough innings there in the middle.”

That was true, as ACU managed only one run in the bottom of the fifth inning when senior designated hitter Diego Cardenas of El Paso drove in Zandt Payne with a single, a hard-hit grounder through the right side of the infield.

The wind also played a factor later in the game, seen when Cardenas hit a deep fly ball to dead center, clocked at 109 mph off the bat, that dropped right at the warning track.

“I feel like anytime you put a Power 4 team on your schedule, it’s just going to be tough,” Cardenas said. “But I feel like that’s why you want those games. Having those reps, having those games under our belt is going to help us in the long run. We’re not going to see that [pitching] this weekend, I don’t think, compared to the Tech offense.”

That perspective may be very important down the stretch. After seeing some of the best arms in the country, ACU fell to 19-21 overall and is now 2-4 in Western Athletic Conference play, sitting in sixth place in the WAC.

“I think you learn from the opponents you play,” McCarty said. “Sometimes you get exposed by them. Sometimes you just get beat by them. I think that’s what happened today.”

The next key conference test starts against UT Arlington, a three-game series beginning Friday at 6 p.m., as ACU looks to turn the tough stretch into lessons as the postseason looms closer.

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