Following a monumental 7-3 victory over No. 1 Texas A&M in College Station on Tuesday night, the Texas State Bobcats (6-2) are returning to San Marcos to host the defending 2024 Regular Season Western Athletic Conference Champion Grand Canyon Antelopes (5-3) this weekend at Bobcat Ballpark.
The Bobcats will be looking to exact revenge against the Antelopes this time around, as the two previously engaged in a three-game series in early March 2023 in Phoenix. Grand Canyon clinched a 2-1 series victory over Texas State, winning both the first and final game of the series.
The Antelopes are coming off a slate of victories over Big Ten opponents, including a 3-1 series victory over Rutgers last weekend in Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark. Grand Canyon won the first three games in high-scoring fashion before dropping the Sunday finale in an 18-7 blowout loss.
No official rotations for the weekend have been set by either team. Last weekend saw Texas State go to Jackson Teer on Saturday, then Sam Hall and Austin Eaton back-to-back on a Sunday doubleheader. Barring any changes, Texas State will most likely follow that same pattern this weekend.
Grand Canyon tossed out a four-player rotation last weekend. The pitchers most likely to start for the Antelopes will be Isaac Lyon, Garrett Ahern and Conner Mattison. Ahern has shown to be one of GCU’s best pitchers, having tossed two quality starts this season against San Diego State and Rutgers, racking up a combined 12 strikeouts from both games and giving up just three earned runs.
The Bobcats offense is looking to remain hot against a pitching staff with an ERA of 4.50 for the season. Leading the way for Texas State offensively are shortstop Ryne Farber and centerfielder Ethan Farris. Both of these hitters are currently the only ones to have double-digit hits going into the weekend for Texas State and have been scorching the ball whenever they make contact.
They are also two of the three Bobcats who currently having a batting average above .300, the other one being right fielder Samson Pugh.
GCU’s offense poses a very similar threat to what Illinois brought last weekend. The Antelopes currently possess five hitters in their starting lineup that are hitting above .300 and three players carrying an OPS (on base+slugging) above 1.000.
Shortstop Emilio Barreras is, without a doubt, the best offensive player Grand Canyon will be bringing to the diamond this weekend. He leads the team in a majority of offensive statistics, currently leading in batting average (.500), OPS (1.248), hits (15) and OBP (.615).
The junior leadoff hitter is coming off a monster start to the season, being named the WAC Hitter of the Week after hitting .632 with five RBIs against Nebraska and Rutgers last week.
The series between Texas State and Grand Canyon will open at 6 p.m. on Friday. Game two starts at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday before concluding the series on Sunday with a start time of 1 p.m.
