TXST BASEBALL
Texas State battles Southern Miss in critical weekend series
Freshman Tanner Carson made his second consecutive start at third base when he came up to bat as the Bobcats were tied at 3-3 with the Houston Christian Huskies going into the bottom of the seventh.
Looking to solidify his spot in the starting lineup, Carson broke the tie by hitting his first-ever collegiate home run over the wall in left field to give the Bobcats the game-winning run at 4-3.
“When I hit it, I thought that it was just going to one-hop it,” Carson said. “Then BG, Brandon [Gowins] ran over at first and he said ‘It got out’. That was surreal. It was awesome going around the bases here and [seeing] the guys go crazy. It’s just good to get it out of the way.”
As per the new tradition with Slam Marcos, Carson celebrated in the dugout by wearing the team’s river tube, something he had been looking forward to wearing.
“It was a great feeling,” Carson said. “It’s something I’ve been waiting for for a while. We’re pretty deep in the season at this point and I’m not only proud of our team and the work that we’ve done, but it was great to hit that. It was a great feeling.”
Despite the offense not reaching their scoring average of 7.94 runs per game, Head Coach Steven Trout was still proud that his team was finding a different way to win, especially on defense.
“I thought we threw the ball really well,” Trout said. “A team that’s been scoring a lot of run, we’re usually out slugging people. We’ve been talking to our staff about ‘Hey, we have to go pick some baseball, right?’
To beat great teams, you have to throw the baseball well and play great defense. Tonight we did that and that’s how we won the baseball game.
“We didn’t have our best outing on offense. That’s how it goes sometimes and then we’ll go back to work on that tomorrow. But that’s just baseball. To be a great team, you have to win in different ways. It’s not just one way, so tonight was pitching, defense, some timely hits, and we played a whole different game tonight.”
The Huskies struck first in the top of the first, hitting a two-run home run to take the early 2-0 lead.
The Bobcats answered in the same inning as junior Manny Salas connected with an RBI double.
Texas State later took the lead in the bottom of the second when senior Chase Mora hit a tworun home run, putting the Bobcats up 3-2.
It was Mora’s seventh for the season and 38th of his career.
Houston Christian tied the game in the top of the seventh, scoring on a two-out RBI single that dropped down on the right field foul line, allowing the runner to score from first.
But in the bottom of the seventh, the Bobcats were back in front.
Leading off, Carson hit his first-ever collegiate home run, giving the lead back to Texas State at 4-3.
“We were trying to find somebody in that 9 hole, playing second and third,” Trout said.
”So guys just brought a little bit more to the table and [Carson] did a pretty good job. Let off some barrels, obviously tonight with the big home run, played some good defense. So he’s a really good player for us. You kind of have to wait your turn sometimes as it comes around and when JV [Justin Vossos] went down, it was another guy to step in there and make that happen. So a really good day for him.”
Conference Series Preview Texas State returns to conference play this weekend on the road as the Bobcats take on the No. 22-ranked Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
Going into their series, Trout and his staff made the decision to switch up their weekend starting rotation by moving freshman Wade Cooper and sophomore Cade Smith into starting roles while moving seniors Kyle Froelich and Sam Hall into closing roles.
“We’ve not had a lot of length out of our starting pitching, so you have to make some changes to try to get off to a better start,” Trout said. “Coop and Smitty have been great on the back end, closing in the middle of the games so we’re going to flip it. Hopefully they can get us five, six innings, and then you can see what [Hall and Froelich] can do when they’re in shorter stints as well.”
Southern Miss enters the weekend with a 2512 overall record and an 8-7 conference record, following a 10-3 loss to Ole Miss on Tuesday.
It will be strength on strength between the Texas State offense and the Southern Miss defense with the Bobcats averaging 7.94 runs per game while the Golden Eagles have a team ERA of 3.77.
On the other side, Southern Miss’ offense has averaged 6.06 runs per game while the Bobcats have a team ERA of 5.71.
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. Friday at Southern Miss.
