After preventing the sweep by Grand Canyon on Sunday afternoon with a walk-off RBI single from Chase Mora, Texas State (7-4) will take a quick visit to San Antonio on Tuesday afternoon to play the Incarnate Word Cardinals (7-5) at Sullivan Field.
The Bobcats have a five-game winning streak against the Cardinals that spans back to May 3, 2022.
UIW comes into Tuesday’s matchup having lost four straight games, dropping one against the University of Texas-Austin on Feb. 25 and losing three to Houston Christian University at home last weekend.
The Cardinals currently field one of the best offenses in the country, ranking highly across many statistics. They currently rank seventh in the country for on-base percentage, sixth in runs, fifth in batting average and fourth in hits. Incarnate Word has scored double-digit runs in half of the games they’ve played this young season.
The UIW offense contains four hitters who post an OPS above 1.000. First basemen Rob Liddington Jr leads the way for Incarnate Word, occupying a 1.463 OPS, .449 batting average, 22 hits (which is tied for seventh overall in the country) and tied for first in home runs with five.
It should be noted that UIW plays in a very offensive-friendly ballpark and has played almost every single game at home so far this year besides the one away game against the Longhorns.
“It’s not going to be an easy task in [Incarnate Word’s] ballpark,” Head coach Steven Trout said. “It’s usually a pretty offensive ballpark…the wind blows out there well… they always play better in their ballpark.”
Texas State will likely line up LHP Jesus Tovar to start Tuesday once again following two starts against ranked opponents where he held down two highly touted offenses.
“[Tovar has] been fantastic,” said Trout. “He’s just such a slow heart rate kid…I could see him in the future getting on our weekend rotation.”
It is currently undetermined who is slated to start on the mound for the Cardinals.
The weather for Tuesday’s matchup is projected to be warm and sunny but windy, which might help both teams’ offenses. The first pitch is currently slated to start at 2 p.m. Streaming will be available on ESPN+.
