Bobcats struggle at plate, drop doubleheader against Trojans

Texas State couldn’t come up with clutch hits against Troy and dropped both games of a doubleheader on Friday inside Bobcat Ballpark. 

The Bobcats stranded 24 runners in two games. Texas State loaded the bases four times Friday but only scored four runs. 

Texas State dropped the opening game, 7-3, and finished the day with a 7-6 loss.  

“Obviously, very disappointed,” head coach Ty Harrington said. “I thought we were going to have a chance to win (Friday) and do a good job and continue on with a little more momentum of what we’ve kind of had going. And so, certainly disappointed with the outcomes. I think there are ways you can go through and find something positive maybe here and there but the ultimate thing is when you play doubleheaders is that you’ve got to find a way to win, particularly in your own ballpark, which we didn’t do tonight.” 

Troy (16-14, 5-6 Sun Belt) jumped on Texas State (19-12, 6-5) early with two runs in the first inning during Friday’s opening game. By the time the Bobcats could respond with their first run of the game in the third inning, they were already down 5-0. 

Texas State got as close as 5-2 but Troy put the game away with two insurance runs in the ninth inning. The Bobcats brought one run home during their last at-bat but couldn’t rally any further. 

Texas State junior pitcher Nick Fraze struggled to find consistency on the mound on Friday. He suffered his third loss of the season after allowing five earned runs on eight hits in six innings of work. Troy redshirt junior pitcher Cory Gill earned the win for the Trojans.

The Bobcats looked poised to even the series in the second game. Redshirt senior left fielder Travon Benton hit a one-out double in the first inning and junior second baseman Jaxon Williams hit an RBI single to score Benton. 

Texas State loaded the bases in the second inning but only brought home one run when Williams hit into a fielder’s choice. 

Troy tied the game in the third with an RBI double by junior right fielder Dalton Sinquefield. But the Bobcats scored a run in the fourth and the fifth to regain the lead at 4-2. 

The Trojans answered in the sixth with an RBI double from senior first baseman Sadler Goodwin and a sac-fly by freshman center fielder Logan Cerny to tie the game. 

Troy took a 7-4 lead with three runs in the seventh inning. Texas State cut the Trojan advantage to 7-5 when sophomore shortstop Dalton Shuffield hit an RBI triple in the bottom of the seventh. 

Freshman catcher Peyton Lewis hit an RBI single to bring the Bobcats to within 7-6 in the bottom of the ninth. But Texas State couldn’t complete the comeback. 

“We had a couple unfortunate, just bad things that could go wrong went wrong in game two for us but that’s baseball,” Harrington said. “This game is tough and it’s hard and if you’re not prepared and you’re not ready and you’re not playing constantly and competing nonstop like we’ve been doing, things like that can happen. It’s exactly what happened today.” 

Following Friday’s disappointing result, Harrington said the Bobcats will have to start competing better when they take on Troy in the series finale. 

“We’ve got to come up with hits with guys in scoring position,” Harrington said. “You know, you put 14 guys on base, you’ve got to score. I think we left 10 guys on (in the first game) that’s 24 guys in two games. That’s a lot of guys on base. They didn’t have very many guys on base and they managed to come up with the hits when they had to tonight.”