Bobcats bounce South Alabama in series opener, 10-2

Texas State Baseball won its series opener against South Alabama on Friday, 10-2, inside Bobcat Ballpark.

The maroon and gold were led on the mound by junior starting pitcher Zeke Wood, who held the Jaguars to two runs over the first 5.1 innings, and right-handed reliever Triston Dixon, who kept the visitors off the scoreboard over the 2.2 innings. Wood (5-1) received the win, striking out four in the process. Sophomore RHP Otto Wofford closed out the ninth inning for the hosts.

“Another great start by Zeke. Battled like crazy and gave up five hits in five innings,” head coach Steven Trout said. “Dixon has been a life saver for us coming in with guys on bases. Obviously, we have are having a good year and they are two of those guys that are big credit for it.”

South Alabama starting pitcher Matt Boswell took the loss after Texas State exploded out of the gates on offense, scoring six runs in the first three innigs of the evening.

Senior shortstop Dalton Shuffield hammered a solo home run down the left field line in the bottom of the first and finished the night 2-5. Junior catcher Peyton Lewis collected three RBIs, going 2-3

“Boswell has a really good fastball. We wanted to make him pitch with his breaking ball and take his fastball away from him. We got on him and made him start to pitch backwards,” Trout said. “Excellent job by Shuffield to lead it off and we kept grinding it out and hunting mistakes.”

The Bobcats (33-10, 16-3 Sun Belt) faced off with the Jaguars (23-17, 9-10) again on Saturday, the game ending after press time. The teams will finish their series on Sunday at 11 a.m.