Texas State struggles in loss to A&M-Corpus Christi

Wednesday was not a good night for the Bobcats. 

Texas State dropped a 12-5 contest to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi inside Bobcat Ballpark. In the process, the Bobcats gave up 15 hits and committed two errors. 

“That’s not how we play baseball,” head coach Ty Harrington said. “It’s certainly not how we pitch and how we expect ourselves to play defense … I certainly don’t, moving forward, expect and hope that we’ll play like that again. We’ve got to definitely get better in a lot of different areas. First place is on the mound. We’ve got to do a better job of playing defense. I thought offensively, we had decent at bats at different. When it rained it poured tonight. It was a bad night for us.”

Texas State (5-3) got on the board first against A&M-Corpus Christi (6-4) with a two-run home run from junior right fielder Chase Evans. 

The Islanders got a run back in the fourth inning with a solo shot from junior left fielder Mike Williams. 

A&M-Corpus Christi seized control of Wednesday’s game in the fifth inning when it batted around its lineup and brought home six runs to take a 7-2 lead. The Bobcats, however, answered with two runs in the bottom frame to get within two runs. 

The Islanders scored a run in the eighth inning and four in the ninth to secure the 12-5 victory. 

Texas State’s bullpen struggled in Wednesday’s game. Senior lefty Anthony Pagano took the loss in relief after he gave up five runs on three walks and two hits in one-third inning on the mound. Senior left-hander Brandon Lewis allowed four runs on four hits in two-thirds innings of work. 

“We didn’t make very good pitches,” Harrington said. “We were behind. There wasn’t a whole lot of first-pitch ability to us tonight as far as getting ahead. Again, we’ve got so many areas we’ve got to continue to get better at. I thought coming out of the weekend, we would be prepared for tonight and pitch better than what we did.” 

Texas State travels to Houston to take part of the 19th annual Shriners College Classic at Minute Maid Park. The Bobcats will take on Rice at 11 a.m. on Friday, Houston at 11 a.m. on Saturday and No. 12 Baylor at 11 a.m. on Sunday. 

Harrington said it’s back to the drawing board after Wednesday’s poor outing. 

“I can tell you one thing, we’re going to practice our ass off (Thursday), and (have) a little better attitude about how we do things,” Harrington said. “I can promise you that.”