Pitching dominated early and hitting stole the show late as the Texas State Bobcats (1-0, 0-0 SBC) cruised to victory against the Niagara Purple Eagles (0-1, 0-0 MAAC) in Friday night’s season opener.
On a perfect night for baseball, the Bobcats flexed in a big way for their home fans who filled Bobcat Ballpark in a show of early-season support.
Graduate transfer starting pitcher Kyle Froehlich dealt early and often. The Canadian right-hander delivered five innings of shutout baseball in route to notching his first victory of the season.
“The feeling of getting the win tonight was amazing, man,” Froehlich said. “Super excited to compete with these guys, we were ready to face somebody else rather than each other.”
Getting the start for opening night didn’t seem to faze Froehlich, as he brought the heat from the jump. Froehlich’s line included two hits allowed with zero walks and eight strikeouts, including two innings striking out the side in order.
It was also the centerpiece for a Bobcat pitching staff performance that allowed only three hits and struck out 15 while facing only three batters over the minimum.
“A lot of it was just trusting my routines,” Froehlich said, “We had a really great gameplan going in, seeing film of [Niagara’s] hitters and then my focus was just to execute pitches the best I can. Then, just let the results speak for themselves.”
While Froehlich stymied the Purple Eagles’ bats, senior third baseman Chase Mora was the lone offense early on.
In the second inning, Mora turned on a 2-2 fastball and belted it 436 feet to deep left-center for a two-run homer, pulling him closer to the all-time Texas State home run record. Mora also flashed his glove in the fifth, stretching out to corral a laser shot up the third-base line in support of his starter, during Froehlich’s final full inning.
When the offense for Texas State did heat up, it was unmistakable. In the seventh, junior transfer outfielder Bennet Fryman took Niagara’s fourth pitcher of the game to right field for a three-run dinger off the video board, busting the dam open for the Bobcats. It was part of a nine-run, eight-hit onslaught for Texas State.
“And we kept scoring after [the home run]. And that’s big for me, the momentum,” Trout said. “Sometimes a homer like that stops momentum because there’s nobody on base, but they just kept swinging, kept getting guys to the dish.”
Leaving the yard wasn’t the only variety of home run on display for the Bobcats. In that same inning, true freshman Jackson Cotton drove a 1-0 pitch to bounce off the center field wall, driving in two more runs. Cotton hit the afterburners and slid into home on the rare inside-the-park homerun to the chorus of cheers from the San Marcos faithful.
“I kind of blacked out from third base to home, honestly,” Cotton said. “I didn’t even look up, I was head down thinking it was a triple. Then I saw [Trout] sending me. I was just so fired up, it was one of the coolest things I’ve done in my life.”
The Bobcats will return to Bobcat Ballpark again with first pitch slated for 6:05 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14, for the second of three games against Niagara. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.
