Bobcat Bats Silenced By Rice

The Texas State Bobcats opened the 2010 year going 3-0 with a sweep, in Houston, of the Cougars. The Rice Owls started in opposite fashion as they got swept by Stanford in California. Since the start of the year, both teams have switched roles as the Owls have not lost in 4 straight and the Bobcats have lost 3 in a row in the QTI classic in Waco, TX. Unfortunately for Texas State, that mark expanded to four losses in a row Wednesday night in a 5-0 defeat.

Coming into Wednesdays home opener, the Bobcats were looking to bounce back against their 7th straight top ranked team. The Owls were sending the crafty left-handed pitcher Abe Gonzalez to the mound, and Texas State was giving transfer pitcher Carson Smith a chance for his first start.

It was a pitchers duel from the beginning. Smith got into a little bit of trouble in the first as leadoff hitter, and national prospect, Anthony Rendon walked and shortly came around to score on a base hit. After that Carson was dominating, his power pitching style wearing down the Owl hitters. He went three up three down the next two innings, around Rendon. Rendon walked 3 times on the night as he saw the Bobcats pitchers having trouble finding the zone for some reason when he was at the plate. In the 5th inning the Owls really put in on the Bobcats.

It all started with a Rendon walk. Carson Smith was able to get the following hitter, Mozingo, to fly out to left. On the next play Michael Ratterree hit a shot right off the mound that popped into the air, giving Jason Martinson a chance at it, his throw though was a bit high and gave the Ratterree the bag by a step. That was followed by a walk, and then Chase McDowell hit a three-run triple into the right field gap.

That was the end of the night for Smith who went 5.1 innings giving up 4 hit and 4 earned runs, he also struck out 7 in the contest.

On the other side of the ball, Abe Gonzalez was dominating the entire game. Working his off-speed pitches, he kept the Texas State hitters off balance and the plate. The Bobcats really looked uncomfortable through the 5.1 innings that Gonzalez pitched. The only good thing for the ‘Cats was that every time they did put a bat on the ball they were hit hard, and right at someone. Just a matter of bad luck. Laurn Randell, however, really came out looking comfortable, poking a double right inside the right field line in the 2nd inning. He went 2-4 on the night.

The game went quickly and ended in a brisk 2 hours and 10 minutes. There was an opening night crowd just under 2000 at Bobcat Baseball field on Wednesday.

Texas State falls to 3-4 on the season and opens Conference play this weekend as they host Texas A&M Corpus-Christi Friday through Sunday. You can listen to the Friday and Sunday games on Stretch Internet at txstatebobcats.com.

-Will McGinnis, KTSW Sports Staff Writer