Bobcats Bats Too Much For The Nittany Lions in 15-6 Rout

The 'Cats merely replicated the Friday night onslaught with a 16 hit, 15 run performance highlighted by two towering home runs to right field in a 15-6 win over Penn State. The PSU pitching staff came in to Saturday afternoon with an emphasis on slowing down the Bobcat offensive attack, but got a little sidetracked after an early mistake that Jason Martinson took advantage of and the offense remained contagious. Head Coach Ty Harrington harped upon the importance of worthy and meaningful at bats after the Tuesday night heart breaking loss in Austin and they have responded in the best and most obvious way this weekend by tallying 35 runs in 2 games thus far and is now looking for the sweep Sunday afternoon.

Saturday provided a little tweak in the lineup as as fellow freshman Andrew Stumph got some rest after hitting his first Grand Slam Friday Night, but fellow Freshman Andrew Lacombe represented the fifth different player to be inserted in the DH spot this year and like all of the rest did a good job. Several Bobcat players used Saturday's game to keep piling on their stats in the offensive category including Kyle Livingston who is now 6 for 10 in the series and is now producing at the rate that everyone expects to see.

Brian Borski got his second consecutive Saturday start and had a perfect top of the first with a strike out and a 4-6-3 double play, opposed to his last couple that included the first inning blues and a few uncharacteristic walks. Then, in the bottom of the first the Bobcats took advantage of a two out error and picked up right where they left off from Friday night on an opposite field blast off the bat of Jason Martinson that plated three and made it 3-0 right out of the gates. A manufactured run in the second made it 4-0, but then a two inning mental lapse (3rd & 4th) by the Bobcat defense that accounted for three errors and a home run off the bat of Bobby Jacobs chased Brian Borski out of the game a little earlier than desired and the Nittany Lions tied up the score 5-5 in the top of the fourth.

In the bottom of the fourth, Laurn Randell got things going by taking a pitch in the elbow, stealing second base, and eventually coming home on a Tyler Sibley single up the middle. Brett Atwood and Kyle Livingstone both singled as well in the inning, and starting pitcher Neal Herring fittingly exited after a line drive off the bat off Jason Martinson struck the Freshman's shin, putting the Bobcats back up by three runs at 8-5. Fireworks sparked in the fifth inning for the Cats as they put up a seven spot in the inning that began with seven straight singles and was capped off by a Shaun Garcia three run bomb to right center field putting them up 15-5 and in cruise control.

The bullpen did a good job this afternoon mopping up 4 1/3 innings as Garret Carruth was credited with his 2nd win on the year by pitching two solid innings. Freshman RHP Garret Sheppard helped his own cause for playing time as he pitched a near perfect two innings to close out the game that included 4 k's and a remarkable rhythm. The win puts the Bobcats back over the .500 mark at 7-6 overall and will try to pull off a series sweep against a Big 10 team for the second consecutive season. You can listen to the game on 89.9 KTSW, ktsw.net and txstatebobcats.com, first pitch is set for 11:00 A.M and the pregame will start at 10:45.

-Weston Warner, KTSW Sports Staff Writer