After a 10-9 win in walk-off style Saturday, the Bobcat’s lost the deciding game of their Sun Belt Conference series against the Georgia State Panthers 11-8 Sunday at Bobcat Ballpark.
The Texas State baseball team has now lost four of their last five Sun Belt Conference series dating back to the beginning of April.
In game two, the Bobcats jumped out to an early lead with a pair of second-inning runs, but the Panthers knotted the score at 2-2 with a run in the fourth and a single shot over the left-field wall in the fifth frame.
The two teams then traded back-to-back four run frames in the following two innings, but Georgia State kept making consistent contact leading to three more in the seventh to pull ahead 9-7.
The Bobcats entered the ninth inning trailing 9-8.
With two outs, junior Travon Benton kept Texas State alive with a four-pitch walk.
Then, junior leadoff batter Derek Scheible ripped a shot to right center for a double that put two Bobcats in scoring position.
That brought second baseman Jonathan Ortega to the plate. The sophomore then hit a walk-off line-drive up the middle of the Panther defense to bring home sophomore Jacob Almendarez and Scheible to tie the weekend series at one.
This was the Bobcat’s 13th come-from-behind win of the season. It was also the fifth time this year, and second time this week that Texas State came out victorious trailing heading into the ninth.
“This is a pretty resilient bunch,” Head coach Ty Harrington said. “There have been other times where we got close, but could not complete a comeback. They’ve had that resilient trademark all year long. We have to put ourselves in a better situation where we can start saving games instead of having to win at the end. But they’ve been able to do that. It’s a character trait that they have. Hopefully they’ll continue it going forward.”
True freshman Nicholas Fraze collected a no-decision after letting up five runs, six hits in 5.2 innings pitched. Sophomore Brayden Theriot (3-1) earned the win after allowing three runs on three hits in the final three innings.
In game three, the Bobcats earned their first two runs on back-to-back bases-loaded walks in the bottom of the fourth.
The Panthers immediately responded with a lead-off dinger over the left-field wall, a run scored on a wild-pitch and an RBI double to give Georgia State their first lead of the game at 3-2.
After the two teams laid eggs for over a third of the game, there were 17 runs scored in the next four frames.
Down 11-6 with one frame to play, the Bobcats managed to put together two runs on two hits, but the hole they had dug themselves proved too deep, losing 11-8.
Texas State will have the week to recoup and rebalance with no mid-week action due to finals.
Harrington said he truly wished that Texas State wouldn’t have to play at all during finals.
“Right now our kids need to cut loose from baseball and go focus on school,” Harrington said. “They need to cut free from this, go study, hit the books, get this off their minds so we can move forward and go play baseball.”
Next up for the Bobcats will be a three-game away series against Louisiana on May 12-14. The first game of the series will begin at 6 p.m.