May 20, 2009

Final Stats

Corpus Christi, Texas - The Texas State Bobcat baseball team broke three single-season records and belted three home runs to take a towering 9-2 win over Stephen F. Austin in game one of the Southland Conference Tournament tonight at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas.

"I knew we would play well today," said head coach Ty Harrington. "We came on the field with that mentality and that attitude, so I knew our guys would come out and play ball."

The Bobcats will return to action tomorrow night a 7 p.m. against No. 4-seeded Lamar, who overcame a 3-0 deficit to defeat UT Arlington 4-3.

"We are a victorious team today," added Harrington. "The old saying goes that you take one victory at time and that is what we're going to do...take each victory at a time. Hopefully tomorrow will be victorious for us again."

SFA crossed the plate first in tonight's game, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the second and holding Texas State to a pair of scoreless innings. The Bobcats broke through with a three-run homer straight down the left line from Paul Goldschmidt to take its first lead of the game.

The trio of runs score set the Texas State single season record for most runs scored in a season. The Bobcats entered the game at 452, one away from the standing record set in 2001.

SFA countered right after with a single run in the top of the fourth when Ryan Priest led off with a single to left field. A pair of groundouts shifted the junior to third base and a wild pitch from Kane Holbrooks gave Priest room to score.

The Bobcats returned the nudge with a run to maintain the edge, but tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 7-2 lead. On one out, Lance Loftin fought to stay alive on a 1-2 pitch and pelted a solo home run off the scoreboard. One out later, Jason Martinson attempted the same shot to right center, but Zach Gardner reached over the fence and brought back the hit for a triple. But in the next at-bat Tyler Sibley brought the shortstop home with a deep home run, his 10th of the season, to left field to cap the scoring for the inning.

Martinson and Keith Prestridge notched a pair of sacrifice flies in the bottom of the seventh and eighth, respectively to give Texas State its final pair of runs.

The Bobcats rattle off 13 hits and the nine runs batted in topped the single-season record set in 2008 of 426, raising the tally to 431. Texas State's three home runs also raised the team's tally from 69 to 72, breaking an old record of 70 set in 2002.

Goldschmidt went 2-for-4 with three RBI and Loftin went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored to lead Texas State's offense.

SFA was held to just six hits and not one Lumberjack tallied multiple hits.

Kane Holbrooks earned his 10th win of the season with a seven-inning outing, giving up just two runs off five hits with just one walk.

Tomorrow's game can be heard on 89.9 FM and can be followed on Game Tracker through www.txstatebobcats.com.