COLLEGE STATION, Texas — In a real sense of Déjà vu from Saturday’s loss against No. 12 Texas A&M, the Texas State Bobcats were officially eliminated from the 2026 NCAA Tournament following a 15-4 loss in the second elimination game to the No. 25 Southern California Trojans on a cloudy Sunday afternoon in the College Station Regional at Blue Bell Park in College Station, Texas.
The Trojans got their get-back with a resounding offensive beatdown that served as the complete opposite from their 14 runners they left on from the loss on Friday, continuing their momentum from a dominating 19-6 victory against the Lamar Cardinals in the first elimination game on Saturday. It was bullpen-by-committee for both teams, but Texas State dug deep into their bullpen after opening with sophomore righty Cade Smith, utilizing more than double the pitchers used with nine compared to USC’s four.
Rather than looking down on the loss, however, head coach Steven Trout reflected on the team’s path and said that making it to the regional was a good building block for the future of the program.
“Not our best day, but anytime you make a regional to me is a successful season,” Trout said. “The number one goal of our program is to get in the postseason and have a chance…wasn’t always the prettiest or cleanest but I’ll go to war for these guys any day of the week.”
In what seemed to be a direct inverse of how the regional games started for the Bobcats, their opponent struck first as the Trojans continued their hot offensive stretch by opening the game with a lead-off single while Smith struggled with control, hitting a batter immediately after and then walking the next batter to load the bases for junior third basemen Kevin Takeuchi.
The San Diego native pounced on a 0-1 pitch into deep centerfield to start the elimination game with a bang, opening USC’s lead to 4-0 in the top of the first. From there, while Texas State got on a few times through the first three innings with one single from freshman catcher Clayton Namken and a few walks, Trojan freshman pitcher Diego Velazquez was able to settle in and start the game by holding off the Bobcats with confidence.
“[The grand slam] helped me pitch with freedom…a pitcher always feels good when you have the lead,” Velazquez said. “…we’re all pulling the rope with each other, it just shows how strong we are and how we are able to pull off our stuff.”
The Trojans scored a pair-of-runs across the third and fourth, starting with junior catcher Isaac Cadena extending the USC lead with a two-run bomb into the right field bleachers and then tacking on an additional two the following inning through an RBI single and a bases-loaded walk, making it 6-0.
In the bottom half of the fourth, the struggling Bobcats offense showed some life with a four-run spotting which include senior first basemen Coy DeFury smashing one deep into the right field bleachers for his first one of the season.
He also made history in the process by giving Texas State a parting gift to the Sun Belt Conference: hitting their 116th home run of the season, breaking the previous conference record that was held by the 2004 New Mexico State Aggies for most home runs by a team in a single season.
“We’re going to a new conference, I won’t be there, but we’re setting these new guys up for success,” DeFury said. “all the freshman and everybody that’s under us [sees the home run record] and go ‘let’s do it in the new Pac-12′”.
The Bobcats cut further into the lead as junior designated hitter Manny Salas drove in a run with an RBI single and later on, a bases-loaded walk to bring them within striking distance, down just four runs. However, two strikeouts stopped any momentum Texas State had going for them.
The Trojans scored their ninth run of the game in the six in an unusual way. With junior first basemen Adrian Lopez on third and two gone, senior pitcher Alizaeh Gutierrez tossed a pitch into the ground that got lodged into Namken’s equipment. Per NCAA rules, that is ruled as a dead ball and any runners on base advance, which resulted in Lopez allowing to reach home safely after review.
In the seventh, they added a couple more runs to reach double-digits via a sacrifice bunt to allow a runner to score from third and junior Abbrie Covrrubis, who had been crushing the ball all weekend, scorched an RBI double into left center to give USC an 11-4 lead.
USC scored for the third consecutive inning in the eighth as they put up yet another four-run frame, in large part thanks to a three-run RBI double from freshman outfielder Walter Urban, making it 15-4.
Once the blowout was for-sure, the last few innings of the game saw the Bobcats pinch in some of players who are going to depart once the season concluded, such as graduate catcher Austin Munguia, pitcher Braylen Timmins and most notably, outfielder Rashawn Galloway, who pinch ran for junior second basemen Justin Vossos in the bottom of the ninth after not starting due to an injury he obtained from crashing into the outfield wall on Friday night.
“[The seniors] were gutsy, competitive guys, they showed up every day no matter how they were feeling…at the end of the day, as a coach, that’s all you can ask for,” Trout said. “Just some unbelievable careers…I couldn’t be more proud of this senior group.”
The game and ultimately Texas State’s season concluded when freshman left fielder Blake Beheler popped up in foul grounds, officially concluding the Bobcat’s postseason run in the College Station Regional second elimination game. With that, they head into the offseason with some notable departures already, such as former shortstop Dawson Park having left the team at the beginning of May and including 10 seniors and graduates like Mora and Galloway.
However the offseason goes, Texas State will seek to continue the momentum from this past season and keep it going as they prepare to play in a Pac-12 Conference that has notably two other teams that made it into this years tournament, including Washington State and Oregon State.
“The young guys got the regional taste in their mouth,” Trout said. “Now they got to know what it’s like to go win a regional and get to a super regional and eventually get [Texas State] to Omaha.”
