The Bobcats were coming off a bitter-sweet weekend of baseball heading into Tuesday night’s matchup vs. the Houston Baptist Huskies. Texas State, recently ranked 30th in the Nation, hosted a three-game series against conference foe Northwestern State, and after winning games 1 and 2 on Friday and Saturday, the Bobcats struggled defensively and committed 4 errors in Sunday’s 8-0 loss.
Well, someone should have told the Huskies that Coach Harrington was going to let out his frustration on Tuesday.
The ‘Cats exploded for 17 runs and completely dismantled Houston Baptist in their 17-2 victory. The Bobcats poured it on early and often. A seven-run 3rd inning is what got it started. Texas State (24-14) / (15-6) managed 2 more runs in the 4th, then after a 3-run Home Run in the 5th by Laurn Randell, his fourth of the season, the home team found themselves up 12-0 in what seemed like a blink of an eye.
The game went back to normalcy for a brief moment, as the Bobcats failed to score in the 6th and 7th inning, before putting up a 5-spot in the 8th.
Offensively for the Bobcats, the question isn’t, “who did well?”, it’s more a question of “who didn’t do well?” All nine starters for Texas State managed at least one hit. Jeff McVaney and Clint Vest each had 3 hits apiece, while Laurn Randell, Bret Atwood, and Andrew Stumph each managed 2 hits. In fact, Texas State’s reserves threw in their two cents as well. Pinch hitters Andrew Lacombe and Nico Taylor each tallied a hit in their 8th inning appearance. Taylor also recorded an RBI. Though everyone seemed on cue tonight, Laurn Randell gets the “yo” as Texas State’s player of the game. The senior outfielder went 2 for 5 at the plate, scored thrice, and batted in 4 other Bobcats.
Houston Baptist, despite 11 hits, never got into a rhythm at the plate. Zeke Zikeli, Dered Smith, and Kolby Arnst each had 2 hits. First baseman Chase Hernandez went 1 for 4 and batted in the only 2 runs for the Huskies with his 2-run double in the 6th.
‘How did the Bobcats manage 17 runs on 18 hits, while Houston Baptist only scored twice off 11 hits?’ one might ask. Well, the answer is simple. Of Texas State’s 18 hits, 9 of them went for extra bases (1 HR, 2 triples, 6 doubles…yikes!).
The winning pitcher was Mitchell Pitts (4-0). Pitts fanned 2 batters and gave up no runs on five hits. Freshman Travis Ballew came as one of three relieve pitchers. In two innings pitched, he gave up 2 hits and struck out 4 Huskies (his first strikeouts of the year). Jay Reese (1-2) was tagged with the loss for Houston Baptist. He was pulled early, going 2.1 innings and giving up 7 runs off of 6 hits. His relief wasn’t much help either. It took five different pitchers, including designated hitter Robbie Buller, to finish off the ‘Cats. The five Huskies combined to give up 10 runs on 12 hits (walking 8 didn’t help either).
Texas State battles their IH35 rivals of UTSA this upcoming weekend. Games 1 and 2 will be held here in San Marcos, while the third and final game of the series will be played in San Antonio. You can listen to all three games on txstatebobcats.com, and both Saturday's and Sunday's contests will be simulcast on KTSW 89.9 FM and ktsw.net.
Andrew Vizzone, KTSW Sports Staff Writer
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