Texas State baseball (7-4) was defeated by the defending national champion #2 Louisiana State University (11-1) 10-5 in the third and final game of the Astros Foundational Classic Sunday afternoon at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
The loss was the first of the tournament for the Bobcats, who entered the game with a 2-0 record.
Sophomore pitcher Sam Hall got the start on the mound for the Bobcats in place of the regular Sunday starter, redshirt senior pitcher Peyton Zabel. Hall went three innings while giving up eight hits and four earned runs to take the loss.
The game was close early on as both teams failed to scratch a run until the third inning when the Tigers got on the board with a solo home run off the bat of junior infielder Josh Pearson. The Tigers didn’t look back, tallying 19 hits and 10 runs.
However, the Bobcats held their own, putting up two runs in the ninth inning and five overall to stay seemingly within striking distance, but never got the string of big hits they needed to mount a comeback.
Texas State was led offensively by senior designated hitter redshirt senior August Ramirez, junior catcher Ian Collier and junior infielder Aaron Lugo who all put exclamation marks on their respective weekends with two hits each on Sunday.
The Bobcats finished the weekend in H-Town with two wins and a loss in preparation for Texas A&M Corpus Christi (6-8) and a weekend series against Sam Houston State (8-4).
The opening pitch between Texas State and Texas A&M Corpus Christi is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, April. 6, at Bobcat Ballpark.
