Going into the weekend, the Bobcats entered their series against the No. 25 ranked Louisiana Ragin Cajuns on a five-game losing streak including being swept by Louisiana Monroe last weekend.
After Saturday, the Bobcats not only snapped their losing skid but came away with a massive conference series win over the Cajuns.
“The biggest thing was just trusting each other and understanding that weeks like that happen, it's baseball,” Senior Rashawn Galloway said after hitting two home runs with six RBIs. “This is one of the hardest games out there in all of sports. Sometimes things just don't go your way. You're trying to, as an offense, to hit a round ball with a round bat, and that could be very hard as a pitcher sometimes. Guys don't really squirt the ball, and they give runs for it.
“So I think it was just trusting each other, trusting that we put in enough work to be in the position that we are today. We just have to trust in each other, trust that the game's going to come to us instead of trying to press and try to create something that isn't there.”
Texas State poured on 11 runs as the Bobcats came away with a 11-4 win over the ranked Cajuns to capture the weekend series.
“They had a great guy going to the mound,” Head Coach Steven Trout said. “I thought we did a great job offensively with our plan against him. But you know it always starts on the pitching side.
“I thought Sammy Hall wasn't his best today but he found a way to just continue to get outs and keep us in the game. And then Kade Smith, obviously phenomenal job, just attacking the zone, getting ground balls and starting to find that slider. That was kind of his missing key. But he's just getting a lot of confidence going.”
The Cajuns scored their first runs of the game on an RBI bloop single in left field to take the early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Later in the third inning, the Cajuns added on to their lead, hitting a two-run home run.
Down three, the Bobcats needed a spark on offense. In the bottom of the third, that spark came from the bat of Galloway.
With runners on first and second, Galloway connected with a three-run home run in left field as the Bobcats tied the game at 3-3 while extending his hitting streak to 15 games.
The Cajuns later took back the lead in the top of the fifth, scoring on a Bobcat error following a dropped flyball in center field.
But the Bobcats failed to give in.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Galloway hit his second home run of the game, a three-run bomb in left field, giving the Bobcats their first lead of the game at 6-4.
The Bobcats later extended the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning when Manny Salas connected with an RBI single through the right side, making it a 7-4 game.
In the bottom of the seventh, Dawson Park scored on a wild pitch before Salas connected with a two-run homer off the left field foul pole, extending the lead to 10-4.
Brady Boles tacked on another run, hitting an RBI single into right field as the Bobcats pushed their lead to 11-4.
Sophomore pitcher Cade Smith earned his first win of the season, throwing 4.2 innings, allowing just two hits, no runs, no walks and striking out seven batters.
“Just filling up the zone,” Smith said of his performance. ”We have the staff to do it, one of the best staff in the world but we went out there and filled the zone. We can keep doing that.”
Texas State returns to play tomorrow for the conclusion of the three-game conference series against the Cajuns. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. Sunday at Bobcat Ballpark.
