TXST BASEBALL
Coming into the series against Louisiana Monroe, the Bobcats were in a bad spot. Sitting tied for tenth place, in danger of missing the conference tournament and coming off a 18-13 loss to archrival UTSA, Texas State needed a big weekend to keep their season alive.
The Bobcats responded by getting a three-game sweep over the Warhawks, including a 10-0 win over ULM on Sunday, ending the weekend tied for fifth place in the conference standings.
“It’s huge to get a sweep,” senior pitcher Austin Eaton said, who earned his third win of the season.”That’s three extra wins that we needed. We did a great job this whole weekend of just pitching, executing and hitting. It puts us in a really good spot next weekend to go up the list in the conference [standings].”
The sweep improves the Bobcats overall record to 24-24 and their conference record to 12-12.
Head Coach Steven Trout was proud of the team for not only bouncing back from a tough loss against UTSA but completing the sweep against ULM to put themselves in good position in the conference standings.
“We take a lot of pride in winning in our ballpark,” Trout said. “For us, it was back to work for two days. [We] just want to come out and play good baseball, and we did, for the most part, all weekend long. So [we] took care of it on defense, threw a lot of strikes and obviously had some really good swings there throughout the weekend. [We did] a really good job of flushing [the UTSA loss] and going 3-1 for the week.”
Senior Austin Munguia slides into second base safely in the Bobcats win over Louisiana Monroe on Saturday. Texas State completed the sweep of ULM on Sunday in a 10-0 win. Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
Coming into Sunday’s game against the Warhawks, the Bobcats defeated ULM 12-2 on Friday then 7-3 on Saturday to clinch the three-game series.
The Bobcats struck first in the bottom of the second inning when junior first baseman Coy De-Fury hit a two-run RBI double in right field to put the Bobcats up 2-0.
Texas State later added on to their lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. With the bases loaded, junior second baseman Cole Tabor connected with a two-run RBI single through the right side of the field, giving the Bobcats a 4-0 lead.
After scoring on a ULM fielding error to put runners on second and third, sophomore outfielder Samson Pugh hit a tworun RBI single through the left side of the field, extending the lead to 7-0.
Going into the bottom of the eighth, the Bobcats had a chance to end the ballgame early.
Sophomore shortstop Ryne Farber got the offense going early with an RBI single in right field to put Texas State up 8-0, bringing up junior third baseman Chase Mora to the plate.
Facing two outs with runners on first and second, Mora connected with a deep two-run RBI double into left-center field, bringing home both runners and sealing the Bobcat victory with a 10-0 win.
“We went over the scouting report and [the pitches were the breaking balls] are low and fastballs are low,” Mora said. “[Trout just said] go hit a double right here. I got a pitch down, got extended through the middle of the field and drove it in the gap.”
The victory marked the fourth time in the last five games the Bobcat offense had scored double digits runs.
For Trout, the much needed offensive output puts less stress on the defense.
“It gives our pitching staff the confidence that they don’t have to be perfect,” Trout said. “There was a stretch where we all felt like we had to be perfect on everything we did on the pitching side and defensive side because we weren’t scoring runs. So when you have confidence in your offense, it’s going to pick you up and do different things. Hopefully that continues on and these guys will stay right where they are.”
Texas State will be off for their mid-week game before going back into conference play on the road in another critical series against the Georgia Southern Eagles.
The Eagles are coming off a conference series loss to the James Madison Dukes and sit in a three way tie for seventh place with Arkansas State and Appalachian State. Similar to the Bobcats, Georgia Southern is also fighting to stay below tenth place (11th-14th place miss the conference tournament) and place in the top six to avoid playing in a single elimination game during the conference tournament.
First pitch for Texas State-Georgia Southern is set for 5:30 p.m. Friday in Statesboro.
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
Sophomore Ryne Farber lays down the bunt in the Bobcats win over the Warhawks on Saturday. Texas State goes on the road this weekend for another crictical series against Georgia Southern. Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
