Texas State baseball (3-1) lost its first game of the 2024 season, 6-5, against No. 5 Texas Christian University (4-0) on Tuesday night at Lupton Baseball Stadium & Williams-Reilly Field in Fort Worth.
“That was a good battle against No. 5 TCU on the road,” Texas State Head Coach Steven Trout said. “I think tonight showed this is a talented team, and we can play with anybody. But it comes down to small execution when you play a really good team. You have to find a way to make plays or get a bunt down, and we just have to fine-tune those things. I’m proud of how [we] competed all night long and am excited for what’s to come moving forward.”
Senior pitcher Tony Robie got the start on the mound for Texas State, going 1 ⅓ innings and giving up three runs on six hits with one strikeout. This put the Bobcats in a hole early, trailing 5-0 in the third inning.
Texas State plated a run in the fourth inning as fifth-year senior infielder Cameron Thomas drove sophomore second baseman Chase Mora in on a fielder’s choice. Freshman centerfielder Ryne Farber hit a double in the top of the fifth that brought in another run, sparking the offense as the Bobcats scored two more runs in that inning to bring the TCU lead to within a single run. Farber finished the game 4-for-4 with one RBI.
Texas State senior shortstop Davis Powell made a costly error on a double-play attempt as he tried to toss the ball to Mora directly from his glove, but the ball ended up in the dirt instead. TCU capitalized on the mistake, scoring an unearned run on a fielder’s choice in the seventh inning.
Texas State junior infielder Aaron Lugo hit a blooper into centerfield that narrowly missed the outfielder’s glove and rolled back to the fence, allowing Lugo an inside-the-park home run that made the score 6-5 in the eighth inning. However, the Bobcats’ comeback hopes ended after a double play and a flyout put the game to rest in the ninth inning.
TCU sophomore pitcher Louis Rodriguez was the winning pitcher as he went 1 ⅔ innings, giving up no runs on three hits with three strikeouts. Senior pitcher Ben Hampton got the start for the Horned Frogs, going 4 ⅓ innings and giving up three runs on eight hits with six strikeouts.
Texas State will be back in action in the Karbach Round Rock Classic Tournament this weekend. The Bobcats will kick things off versus the University of Kansas (2-2). The Jayhawks are coming off a 13-7 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Opening pitch between Texas State and Kansas is scheduled to be thrown at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas. The tournament will be available to stream on D1baseball.com.
