The Texas State Bobcats suffered a quick elimination in the Sun Belt Conference championship tournament after losing their first two games in Conway, South Carolina.
The losses came less than a week after the Bobcats earned the regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
The No.1 seeded Bobcats were deflated early, getting shut out 8-0 by the University of Louisiana Monroe in their first game of the tournament.
ULM got their offense rolling early against Texas State’s starting pitcher Nicholas Fraze, scoring six runs in the top of the second inning. Fraze would eventually receive the loss, giving up six earned runs on six hits and five walks all before getting pulled at the start of the fourth inning.
ULM was able to tack on two more runs against Texas State reliever Brandon Lewis in the eighth inning, while Texas States offense never seemed to get a footing on the competition.
The entire Texas State team earned no RBIs, produced only three hits, three walks and suffered six strikeouts in their appalling first game loss.
For their next matchup, Texas State was pitted against the tough No. 5 seed Coastal Carolina team for a staggering 13-4 loss.
Texas State’s offense produced four runs on seven hits. John Wurthrich was the only Bobcat to record at least one hit, logging two hits, one run and one RBI.
Texas State ace Connor Reich was given only his second loss of the year when he gave up seven earned runs on eight hits, three walks and four strikeouts in four and one-third innings. Reich ends his senior season leading Texas State pitchers in stats. The right-hander turned in a season ERA of 3.96, 38 earned runs and 86 strikeouts.
The post-season disappointment is just one in a series of tournament losses suffered by Texas State sports this year. Months earlier, Texas State basketball lost in a similar fashion in the conference tournament after being ranked as one of the top seeds, and Bobcat softball finished out their season after losing out in the tournament as a fourth seed.
Although Texas State baseball disheartened fans with their loss in the conference tournament, the team still defied expectations by clinching the Sun Belt regular season title for the first time in program history.