In a do-or-die elimination game to kick off the Sun Belt Conference tournament, Bryson Dudley and the Texas State Bobcats (27-29) got the last laugh against the tenth-seeded Appalachian State Mountaineers (23-31) as the Bobcats won 3-0 in the First Round of the Sun Belt Tournament at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Alabama.
Dudley, in what was his first career with the Bobcats and first since the 2023 season when he was originally a freshman at Blinn College, absolutely dominated the Mountaineers, tossing a complete game shutout and striking out ten batters whilst giving up just two hits and no walks in the process. He earned his fifth victory of the season.
After a critical error from Mountaineer second basemen Joseph Zamora that could’ve potentially turned two outs, Texas State took the advantage to strike first in the ball game as catcher Austin Munguia scored shortstop Ryne Farber on a groundout. Designated hitter Rashawn Galloway smacked an RBI single through right immediately after to give the Bobcats a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
From there out, the ballgame saw very little action on either side. The Bobcats got on base quite a bit, drawing six total walks, but could not produce anything out of it besides one more insurance run that was produced from first basemen Coy DeFury’s RBI single into right field that gave Texas State a 3-0 lead.
Ultimately, the Bobcats achieved a quiet victory that saw them move onto the next stage of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
A lot of the credit can go towards Dudley’s terrific start, but he arguably doesn’t go the full nine innings without some terrific defensive plays from the defense. In both instances where Appalachian State got a man on base in the top of the second and seventh innings, the Bobcats were able to turn impressive double plays that kept them away from scoring.
The Bobcats showed their own potential signs of struggle with a quiet offense as the team left eight runners on base. While they did score three runs and got on base a decent bit, it could spell some trouble potentially later on in the tournament.
With the tournament from here on out being double elimination style, they will be guaranteed to play at least two more games. Texas State will be playing the defending conference champion and No.2 seeded Southern Miss Golden Eagles (41-13) Wednesday with first pitched slated to be at 12:30 p.m. All games in the tournament will be available to stream on ESPN+.
