Texas State Suffers Late-Inning Comeback From Texas

The 6'5" pitcher Carson Smith took the mound for Texas State on Tuesday night with an imposing physical presence, but nobody knew what he was about to unleash at Disch-Falk Field in Austin. After the dust had cleared at the end of the bottom of the 7th, Smith had allowed only five hits and one run while fanning eight Texas Longhorn batters. He had earned the respect of all 6,049 fans in attendance, and he had also helped his team preserve a 2-1 lead. However, baseball is not a 7-inning game, as Texas State learned in excruciating fashion in a 4-3 loss to the 3rd-ranked Texas Longhorns.

Texas State and Texas were locked in a pitcher's duel for the first three innings, as the 'Cats could only muster up one hit from Andrew Stumph and the 'Horns could only get two hits. The Bobcats then broke things open in the top of the 4th, as Bret Atwood started a three-hit rally that brought home himself and Kyle Livingstone. As the 'Cats teed off on UT starting pitcher Austin Dicharry, momentum swung directly over to the Texas State dugout as the burnt orange-clad fans at Disch-Falk were silenced. Carson Smith continued his mastery of the Longhorn batting lineup as he allowed only two total runners to get on base in the 5th and 6th innings--one reaching on a walk, one reaching on a throwing error by shortstop Jason Martinson.

Smith did work his way into a jam in the 7th inning, as UT pounded out three hits and scored Kevin Keyes, the leadoff batter. Things were getting a bit hairy for the Bobcats when Jordan Etier laid down a squeeze bunt with one out and the bases loaded, but first baseman Kyle Livingstone saved the day by picking up the bunt, throwing home, and watching catcher Andrew Stumph tag out Kevin Lusson at home. The play was so intense that not only did baserunner and catcher collide, but home plate umpire Tim Henderson was also knocked down by the play at the plate. Possibly inspired by such a defensive effort, Smith then fought back with his eighth strikeout of the game to Tant Shepherd, helping preserve Texas State's 2-1 lead and putting an emphatic closing statement on his tenure at the mound. Momentum was still on Texas State's side, even though the Bobcat bats had gone silent.

Then, the bottom of the 8th started, and everything changed.

Bobcat head coach Ty Harrington pulled Smith after his mastery of the strike zone had begun to fade somewhat in the 7th inning, and instead sent in his relatively untested sophomore reliever Mitchell Pitts. Harrington stated that Smith "probably would have gone deeper into the game, maybe into the 8th if he had not pitched on Sunday" in his postgame interview with KTSW broadcaster Will McGinnis, and the call to sit Smith made sense at the time. However, Pitts was immediately rocked for two straight hits, and the feelings of dread and sick familiarity may have started to seep into the minds of Bobcat fans familiar with last year's bullpen meltdowns.

The 'Cats tried to reassure themselves with a nice play at third by Kyle Kubitza on a fielder's choice to get the first out, and Harrington went into his bullpen again and brought out right-handed senior Garrett Carruth. Harrington's logic in going to Carruth was to try to offset the powerful right-handed Kevin Keyes of Texas, who had already lit up the 'Cats for two singles earlier in the game. However, Carruth walked Keyes to juice the bases. Kyle Lusson then scored a run on a failed double play turned fielder's choice, as Martinson and Sibley were not quite able to get Lusson on a 6-4-3 double play at first. Lusson did a fantastic job of getting a slow chopper over to Martinson and then showing hustle down the basepaths to beat out the Sibley throw to first. That split second miss by Texas State proved to be extremely costly, as relatively unknown pinch hitter Paul Montalbano singled and scored two runs to put Texas up 4-3 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th. Harrington then brought in Jeff McVaney to relieve Carruth, and McVaney did a nice job of getting the final out with the bases loaded, but by then the damage was done.

The Bobcat bats, active at times but dormant in others in this game, couldn't find much of a window against ace reliever Chance Ruffin, who gave up a walk but nothing else to secure the Longhorn win. It was another frustrating loss for Texas State at Disch-Falk, as the Bobcats ended their season last year with back-to-back late-inning losses to Boston College and Army in the NCAA tournament in the Austin Regional. It was also another tough loss to the Longhorns, as the Bobcats came close but fell short in last year's home opener in San Marcos against Texas. However, as crushing as the loss was, there are still plenty of reasons to still be excited about this team. Carson Smith is now the unquestioned ace on a fairly solid Bobcat starting rotation, while Michael Russo, Brian Borski, and Lee Colon will start on the weekends. The 'Cat bats have shown signs of waking up in the past few games, and slumping Tyler Sibley and Kyle Kubitza are bound to break out at some point. Jeff McVaney will also look to get more time in the Bobcat bullpen, as Coach Harrington stated after the game how pleased he was with McVaney's play in pressure situations. It was also impressive to see Texas State put forth their best effort in Austin in a long time in front of an energized Texas crowd--indeed, the game had almost a bit of a late-season tournament feel to it despite its March date.

However, you can bet that the 'Cats aren't satisfied with their current situation.

Texas State will host a three-game non-conference series this weekend against Penn State starting on Friday. First pitch for Friday's game will be at 6:30 PM, while Saturday's contest starts at 2:00 PM and the Sunday game starts at 11:00 AM. All three games will be aired on 89.9 FM KTSW, ktsw.net, and txstatebobcats.com. Pregame coverage starts 15 minutes before first pitch.

-Will Butler, KTSW Sports Director/Blog Editor