Bobcat Baseball Bounces Back, Blows By Penn State

The Texas State Baseball team has certainly bounced back into their winning ways with a dominating performance Friday night against the Penn State Lions. With a heartbreaking loss against the heavily favored Texas Longhorns, the ‘Cats have showed their fighting ways against the adversity of facing a larger school such as Penn State. Texas State was able to hand a beating to the Lions, coming away with a 20-6 victory. The struggling bats of the Bobcats were certainly absent as they scored every inning but two. The Texas sized road trip for the Nittany Lions is now halfway over and seems to only be getting worse and worse for them. Penn State will have to turn things completely around before their season spins out of control.

After being crushed by the Aggies, Penn State came into the game a little bit weary. This could certainly be seen from the poor pitching displayed by the Nittany Lions. Kyle Livingstone was one Bobcat that took advantage of every opportunity, going 4-for-5 with three RBIs, while Garcia brought in a trio of runs off one hit. Garcia was walked five times in tonight's outing and scored twice. Other hitters that seemed to bully up on the Penn State pitching squad were Tyler Sibley, Kyle Kubitza and Andrew Stumph. Stumph can add a Grand Slam to his highlight reel, which came late in the bottom of the seventh inning making it his second hit of the night. Sibley went 2-3 on the night with a stand up triple after excellent hustle around the bases. A triple from Atwood brought Sibley home, giving Atwood his only RBI of the night.

The Bobcats jumped to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning with a two run homer by powerhouse hitter Kyle Livingstone. The lead only increased with the back to back triple from Sibley and Atwood. Penn State was final able to answer with three runs of their own coming off a three run homer from first baseman Joey DeBarnardis. After poor pitching from the Lions in the bottom of fourth inning, the Bobcats were able to run away with a huge lead from six earned runs. The game was sealed with Stumph’s Grand Slam.

Taking the mound for the Lions was Ryan Ignas. Even though Ignas had the best ERA on the team with a 2.81, he was picked apart by a 6 runs scored in the second inning. After Ignas was pulled, San Marcos got to meet almost every single pitcher Penn State had to offer. Not one pitcher for the Lions was able to come in and not give up a run. Each pitcher gave up one or more runs. This lose will be Ignas’s first one the season while Russo take his second win.

Concluding the game, I had a chance to talk with Coach Harrington about the heartbreak to Texas and Michael Russo’s excellent pitching so far. He told me that the loss to Texas was certainly disappointing. He told his guys to keep their feet moving and continue on. With a huge victory from last night you could certainly see the ‘Cats were moving their feet. The Bobcats will now face to Nittany Lions two more times as they round out the series today and tomorrow with the first game coming at 2 p.m. and the second at 11 a.m. You can listen to both at 89.9 FM KTSW, ktsw.net, or txstatebobcats.com.

-Tyler Thomason, KTSW Sports Staff Writer