BROWNWOOD, TX -- Due to continuing weather and wet field conditions at Don Shepard Park in Brownwood, Texas the American Southwest Conference Baseball Blue Bracket has been relocated to Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas.
The Blue Bracket began play with the No. 4 Louisiana College Wildcats and former Sacred Heart Trojan standout Phillip Vidrine facing off against the No. 5 UT-Dallas Comets Thursday afternoon. That game reached the fifth inning with the Wildcats trailing 6-1 to the Comets before it was suspended because of storms.
The rest of the tournament weekend, including the conclusion of the Louisiana College/UT Dallas game, will be played at Foster Field at First Community Credit Union Stadium on the ASU campus.
LC enters the bracket with their best regular season record since they joined the NCAA at 29-10, the most wins in a single season by any team, posting a 16-8 mark in conference play.
The Wildcats had a lack luster start to the season after an opening 6-2 loss at Centenary and three game sweep at Howard Payne to start conference play.
It was a comeback win over Gwynedd Mercy in Florida that started the turnaround for the Cats as the victory would spark a string of 15 straight wins, including conference sweep at Belhaven and over then #11 ranked Concordia at Billy Allgood Field.
LC lost just two games in the month of March and won 20 of 21 games leading into a road series at Hardin-Simmons.
It has been a one through nine attack that has put the Wildcats in the position to make history with eight players batting .300 or better. Senior Dylan Keller, who missed some time due to injury, is batting a ridiculous .444 with 32 hits in 72 at-bats. Junior lead off man Brady Atkins has a .377 averaged with a team best of 57 hits.
On the mound the two headed monster of Andrew Robinson and Deauton Delgado have helped LC win at least two of three games in six conference series this season.
Robinson has thrown a pair of nine-inning complete games this season, including the first nine-inning complete game shutout, and has a record of 8-1 with a 3.08 ERA.
Delgado threw the second no-hitter in LC history this season and has a 7-2 record with a 3.77 ERA with three complete games to his credit.
Beyond the two starters the Cat bullpen has done stellar work all season. Vidrine leads the pen with 18 appearances, three saves, and a 3.34 ERA in 35.0 innings of work. Southpaw Caleb Prejean has been lights out of late with Konnor McDermott and Chevy Emken providing key quality innings over the last few weeks of the season.
In 10 tournament appearances the Wildcats have an 8-21 record and are still in search of their first conference title. The winner of the blue bracket tournament will advance to the Gold Championship series best-of-three next weekend at the highest remaining seed.
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TRACEY JAGNEAUX Sports Editor