On Friday, the bleeding stopped. Saturday, the bats found life. And Sunday was indeed “fun-day” for the Texas State Bobcats (15-8, 3-3 SBC) as they completed a dominating weekend sweep with a 16-6 victory over the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns (16-8, 2-4 SBC) on a windy Sunday afternoon at Bobcat Ballpark.
Junior starting pitcher Jesus Tovar was back to his terrific form, erasing the memory of his lackluster performance last week against ULM. Tovar pitched five dazzling innings, going hitless through his first 12 batters and ending his outing by getting his fifth win of the season.
“It’s a great bounce back from last weekend’s [performance],” Tovar said. “Always feels good to get a weekend sweep.”
While the first inning proved passive in terms of offense, the Bobcats wasted little time finding their stroke at the dish in the second frame. Sophomore first baseman Ethan Farris took the first pitch he saw from Louisiana-Lafayette junior pitcher J.R. Tollet to left field for a solo shot. Not to be outdone, freshman centerfielder Jackson Cotton smashed a two-run dinger to the opposite field, tracked at an astronomical 473 feet.
The Bobcats then decided to turn the bottom half of the third inning into their own personal home run derby. Back-to-back-to-back homeruns by Farris, freshman catcher Clayton Namken and senior third baseman Chase Mora lit up the scoreboard and propelled Texas State to a giant five-run inning.
It was part of an unprecedented eight home run game for Texas State, tying the all-time program record for homers in a single game. 14 of the Cats’ 16 runs came by way of the longball and they accounted for 80 percent of Texas State’s extra-base hits on the afternoon.
“It starts with just one guy and it becomes contagious,” Farris said. “If one guy’s hitting, the next one is hitting, too. We’re trying to get the next man up because we know the guy behind us can do so much damage. This offense is just buzzing right now, everyone’s buzzing.”
The Bobcats provided a punch of their own every time the Ragin’ Cajuns responded, including sophomore shortstop Dawson Park slugging two home runs as well. The Sunday finale ended with a run-rule victory for Texas State, their second of the season and first since their 11-0 win over the Niagara Purple Eagles on Feb. 15.
Mora also moved up in the record books, now sitting at second overall in program home runs at 34, just two away from tying the top spot with former Bobcat Paul Goldschmidt.
Texas State rolls into its next contest at home at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, against the UTRGV Vaqueros at Bobcat Ballpark. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
