April 23, 2010

Final Stats
by Greg Sharpe and Jake Balsam

SAN MARCOS - Carson Smith threw the first nine-inning complete game for the Texas State baseball team this season, striking out a career-high 10 batters in the Bobcats 5-3 win over 30th ranked Northwestern State Friday night at Bobcat Field.

After giving up a home run in the fourth inning to Chase Lyles that pushed NSU's lead to 2-0, Smith allowed just one earned run off five hits en route to claiming the first win of the three-game series.

"We battled and worked hard, so I'm happy with that, but the story of tonight was Carson Smith," said head coach Ty Harrington. "We needed and challenged him to throw a complete game, which is something we need our Friday night starter to do and he did that tonight."

The win improves the Bobcats record to 23-12 overall and 14-5 in the Southland Conference, increasing its lead in the league standing to 1.5 games over NSU and Stephen F. Austin.

Texas State was aided by three Demon errors, giving the Bobcats three of its five runs.

Texas State catcher Andrew Stumph started the comeback for Texas State in the fifth-inning with a single to right field, off of Ryan Zimmerman. Stumph and Shaun Garcia would go on to score after a routine double play got by the first baseman. Stump finished the night 1-for-4, with one RBI.

"They made some mistakes today that allowed us to score, but you still have to put it in play to make things happen," said Harrington.

The Bobcats tacked on three more runs, one in the sixth and two more the seventh off RBI singles from Jeff McVaney and Kyle Livingstone.

Bret Atwood led the Bobcats seven-hit attack at the plate, finishing 2-for-4.

Smith threw 122 pitches on the night, allowing three runs on seven hits, walking only two batters. The sophomore improved to 5-3 on the season.

Ryan Zimmerman took the loss for Northwestern State and fell to 4-3.

The Bobcats continue their weekend series with Demons Saturday at 2 p.m.