Not even the rain could stop Slam Marcos.
Following a near three-hour rain delay, Texas State scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth including a walk-off three-run home run from sophomore Dawson Park as the Bobcats defeated the Troy Trojans 8-5 to conclude a near six-hour game.
“It goes out to my teammates and I have big faith in them,” Park said. “We tied the game, so I felt like a lot of the pressure was gone. But pretty much just going up to the plate andI was looking for what I want, knowing I'm not gonna get much so I just took advantage of what I got and didn't miss it.”
Texas State improves to 24-10 for the season and 9-4 in conference play while Troy falls to 16-18 overall and 6-7 in conference play.
Battling both the weather conditions and Troy’s tough pitching, Head Coach Steven Trout was proud of his team’s ability to battle.
“There's a lot going on and we knew that going into it there was going to be some messed up weather,” Trout said. “But you can't control it. All you control is, once they say play ball, go get after it. Obviously, Alizaeh [Gutierrez] coming out of the rain delay was phenomenal and Smitty [Cade Smith] of course was great. Then Stu's [Jaquae Stewart] backside out homer and of course they're at the end with Dawson Park.
“Sometimes you get those moments as coach, you want to bunt sometimes but for us we wanted to go win the baseball game and to go score 2 runs so you swing it. … You think about it, that's where Dawson was last week. He popped up to end the game. We told him ‘Hey, man, that's coming back to you, right? When you're in the middle of an order, you're gonna get that opportunity.’ What a big time swing going [opposite field] and winning the game.”
Troy scored first as a fielder’s choice with runners on second and third allowed the run to score from third.
The Bobcats answered in the bottom of the first. After freshman Jackson Cotton reached first on an infield single then advanced to second as the ensuing throw went into the dugout, Park hit an RBI single to score Cotton, tying the game at 1-1.
Troy answered in the top of the second, scoring on a Bobcat fielding error before hitting an RBI double to lead 3-1.
Following the nearly three hour rain delay, the game resumed play.
In the top of the sixth, Troy scored again on another Bobcat fielding error as Texas State trailed 4-1.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, the Bobcats put runners on first and second following an infield single by junior Manny Salas then a walk by redshirt sophomore Ethan Farris.
Junior Jaquae Stewart followed up with a three-run home run in left field, tying the game at 4-4.
Troy answered in the top of seventh, scoring on a sacrifice bunt with runners on the corners to retake the lead at 5-4.
Sophomore Cade Smith kept the Trojans from scoring any more runs as the Bobcats entered the bottom of the ninth still trailing by one run.
Freshman Clayton Namken and senior Chase Mora started the at-bat drawing a pair of walks to put the tying run on second and the game winning run at first.
Following a strikeout, freshman Jackson Cotton hit an RBI single through the right side to score Namken, tying the game at 5-5 as Mora moved to third to put runners on the corners.
A caught pop up in the shallow center field had the Bobcats down to their last out as Park came up to the plate.
With a 2-1 count, Park smashed a three-run home run in right field to end the six–hour game as Texas State won 8-5.
The Bobcats are set to play their second double-header in the last two weeks with the games being rescheduled due to weather concerns.
The double-header is set for Saturday with Game 1 starting at 12 p.m. and Game 2 starting at 4 p.m.
