The Texas State Baseball (45-12) team was selected as the No. 2 seed in the Stanford Regional and is set to take on the No. 3 seed, UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (43-12), in both teams’ first game of the regional. The first pitch between the Bobcats and the Gauchos is slated for 8 p.m. CT on Friday at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto, California.
The host school for the Regional, Stanford (41-14), was selected as the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and will face the No. 4 seed in the regional, Binghamton (22-28), at 3 p.m. CT, Friday.
The Bobcats have only reached the NCAA Tournament six times in program history, but this will be the first time for the maroon and gold as an at-large team as well as the first time playing outside of Texas during the NCAA Tournament. It had been 11 years since the last Bobcat baseball squad was able to reach the tournament.
Coming off a loss to Louisiana in the Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship semi-final game, the Bobcats are looking to get things back on track. Over the course of the season as well as the post-season so far, four Bobcat hitters are batting over a .300 average. Senior shortstop Dalton Shuffield leads the pack with a .390 average and was selected as a second-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball.
On the mound for the Bobcats, pitchers are giving up an average of 4.34 earned runs per game (ERA). Senior closing pitcher Tristan Stivors (7-1) leads the maroon and gold in ERA with a 2.42 and boasts a nation-leading 17 saves. Stivors was the first Bobcat ever selected to first-team All American honors.
The Gauchos, boasting a similar record to the Bobcats, are holding onto a six-game winning streak and closed out Big West Conference play with back-to-back sweeps over UC Riverside and CSU Bakersfield.
As a team, the Gauchos are hitting a .289 average and are holding opposing teams to a .236 average and 3.87 earned runs per game while scoring.
The No. 2 Bobcats and No. 3 Gauchos are set to face off Friday at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond in the second game of the Stanford Regional. The winner of this game will go on to face the winner of No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 4 Binghamton at 9 p.m. CT, Saturday. The loser of the two-three game will play against the loser of the one-four game, Saturday, at 3 p.m. CT.
Sports Reporter Kyle Owen will be reporting live from the Stanford Regional in Palo Alto, California. Follow along on Twitter for updates all weekend long.