Déjà vu is translated from French to mean “already seen.” In Tuesday’s road game vs. #4 ranked Texas in Austin, the Texas State Bobcats were about to see something they had already seen. In the previous matchup between these two teams, the Longhorns came back in the 8th inning scoring by three runs to take the lead and leave it up to their ace closer, Chance Ruffin. Texas State fans may also remember last year's 6-5 loss in San Marcos where UT scored two runs in the eighth to erase a 5-4 deficit. The final result in tonight's matchup was another familiar score: Texas 6, Texas State 5, but the scoreboard did not tell the whole story. Weighing on the collective shoulders of Bobcat Nation tonight is the horror of knowing that Texas State outplayed UT in three out of the past four games in the series, but nonetheless came up empty each time in the win column due to late-inning collapses.
As the Bobcats got off to a fast start with a three run moon shot from freshman catcher Andrew Stumph, it seemed that Brian Borski had gotten over his rough outing against Baylor in his last appearance. The Bobcats scored four runs in the second inning with the first homerun in against Texas in Austin since 2008. The start for Borski was fine in the first two innings only giving up a leadoff, first pitch hit, to Cohl Walla. Borski retired the third in order and fanned two batters to close out the fourth, but not before Texas scored two runs.
Tant Shepherd started it with a single up the middle and Borski walked Cameron Rupp to put runners in scoring position. Russell Moldenhauer took the opportunity to lift a double off the centerfield wall to score one and Kevin Keyes followed with an RBI single through the left side. Texas State came back with a double by Clint Vest that scored another Bobcat run. This was short-lived as the Longhorns came back in their half of the inning and scored on an unearned run.
Now we all know sequels usually aren’t as good as the original, and for the Bobcats, in this movie the sequel was just as brutal. I’m betting Coach Harrington isn’t asking for a third movie to be made from Hollywood.
In the eighth the Longhorns threatened again and with two on and two out, a 3-2 pitch on the way to Kevin Keyes from Jeff McVaney, the game of inches proved its name. A fastball on the outer half of the plate, which landed in what looked to be the exact same area of the zone called for strikes by home plate umpire Terry Richards, was called a ball and allowed the inning to continue. Bobcat and Longhorn fans alike seemed to be shocked by the call. Kevin Lusson then lifted a ball to shallow right field and with Clint Vest going back, Laurn Randell called him off and looked to be in position to make the inning saving catch. Randell squeezed his mitt a second too soon and an inch too early and allowed the Longhorns to continue the inning and get within one. A two run triple from Texas pinch hitter Paul Montalbano then sealed the deal as Bret Atwood tried a Superman leap to catch a ball 15 feet away from him. No dice, and the Longhorns erased seven and a half innings of laborious work by Texas State in a heartbeat as they took a 6-5 lead.
The ninth seemed previously scripted as Chance Ruffin came on with his 0.51 ERA in 35 innings of work and got another save on the year for Texas and Augie Garrido. All the 'Cats could do is watch Laurn Randell hit what may be his only career hit against Texas.
After this weekend's game, coach Harrington talked about the defense of his team, saying that they were still improving. After this game he hopes the team takes a step forward and not backward, saying: "We've got to learn from tonight's game, have a short memory and move on," he went on to add, "We'll take something from this, especially how to keep our competitive nature, but we have to work on finishing our game."
The Bobcats need a short-term memory and keep the Déjà vu on the SLC side of the brain. A sweep this past weekend in their SLC series is what the team is hoping for as the travel to Hammond, LA to face Southeastern Louisiana. The Bobcats still hold the top spot in the SLC with a 12-3 record, the Lions are in second place, with a SLC record of 10-5. Game time for Friday’s opener is set for 6:00pm. You can catch all the action on 89.9 FM KTSW, ktsw.net, and txstatebobcats.com, as well as live in game updates on Twitter on twitter.com/ktswsports.
Will McGinnis, KTSW Sports Staff Writer
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