As the 2024 season approaches Texas State baseball will open the season on Feb. 16 at Bobcat Ballpark with a three-game series against Youngstown State University.
After a winning, yet slightly disappointing 2023 season that saw the Bobcats finish 36-23 but miss the NCAA Tournament, there is no doubt this squad is hungry to find the success it achieved in 2022. Here are some things to expect and look forward to this season as the Bobcats try to play their way to Omaha.
Biggest Changes
Texas State baseball returns for the 2024 season without all three of the starting pitchers from opening weekend last year: Levi Wells, Zeke Wood and Nathan Medrano. The Bobcats also lost a valuable bullpen arm in Triston Dixon. Those four arms combined accounted for 238.1 innings on the hill last year for Head Coach Steven Trout.
Look for established arms like senior right-handers Tony Robie and Peyton Zabel to compete for the Friday night spot, as well as trusted seniors Cameron Bush and Jack Stroud to possibly make some weekend starts throughout the season. Though the baseball team saw many departures, Trout has no shortage of confidence, he said.
Veteran Leadership
Unlike the Bobcats’ bullpen situation, there is no shortage of returning talent in the field. Some of these names include senior catcher August Ramirez, junior first baseman Daylan Pena, senior and junior infielders Davis Powell who is ranked as the 19th shortshop according to D1Baseball, Ryan Leary and sophomore Chase Mora who is the 22nd ranked third basemen by D1Baseball. These five together accounted for 50 HR and 183 RBI.
In total, Trout’s team will feature 18 seniors. The amount of experience accompanied by that number may very well prove to be invaluable to the club this year and be a key factor in a successful season.
New Faces
Some new faces who’ve impressed during the fall and could continue to do so into the season are Alec Patino, Austin Eaton and Ryne Farber. Patino, a senior transfer from Ohio University who started all 49 games in 2023 batted .325 with 48 RBI and eight homers. Eaton, a redshirt junior transfer from Navarro College, was named to the NJCAA All-American Second Team in 2023.
Eaton appeared in 14 games going 11-0 on the mound while posting a 2.12 ERA across 68.0 innings and running his fastball up to 94 mph.
Farber, a freshman out of Johnson High School has been named Sun Belt preseason freshman of the year by D1Baseball.
Big Games
There will be no shortage of big matchups for the Bobcats this season. Based on preseason rankings, Texas State has six top-25 matchups on the schedule, five of which come against in-state rivals.
The first ranked contest of the year comes right at the beginning of the season on Feb. 20 against Texas Christian University who is ranked fifth nationally in the preseason-polls. The Bobcats will host preseason eighth-ranked Texas A&M on April 20.
The remaining three in-state top-25 matchups will come against the preseason 16-ranked University of Texas. But quite possibly the biggest game of the season will see the Bobcats travel to Houston to play in the 2024 Astros Foundation College Classic, where they will go head-to-head with the defending national champion LSU Tigers. This will be only the fourth meeting between the Bobcats and the Tigers, and the first since 2004.
There is no doubt in the locker room that this team has the talent and experience to make the NCAA Tournament, which is almost the expectation around San Marcos these days. But the season is long and anything can happen throughout it. Look for the Bobcats to take this season one game at a time, controlling only what they can and putting their best foot forward every time they cross the white lines.
