April 24, 2010

Final Stats

by Gregory Sharpe

SAN MARCOS - The Texas State baseball team claimed its sixth Southland Conference series of the season behind strong offensive performances from Kyle Livingstone and Shaun Garcia, downing the No. 30 Northwestern State Demons 7-3 Saturday afternoon at Bobcat Field.

"Winning the series is a great thing, but we try to take it one moment, one game at time," said head coach Ty Harrington. "You have to focus on the moment in front you and we did that today."

Texas State improves to 24-12 on the season, 15-5 in conference play. The win stretched the Bobcats lead to 2.5 games over the Stephen F. Austin for first place in the league.

The Bobcats started out slow for the second-straight game and fell behind 1-0 to the Demons on an unearned run. Shaun Garcia evened the rift with an RBI double to right field in the second.

The scoring continued in the fifth when Jason Martinson scored on a throwing error to second base went to right field. Kyle Livingstone who singled through the left side to reach base, moved into scoring position on the error and took third on a wild pitch. Garcia, who finished 3-for-4 on the day, pushed the senior across in his next at-bat.

Livingstone and Bret Atwood also finished with three hits in Texas State's 14-hit outing.

Errors plagued NSU in today's game as well and a pair of miscues in the seventh led to the Bobcats seventh run of the game. McVaney scored the team's only earned run in the three-run inning on an RBI single from Martinson. NSU scored its final two runs on a solo home run from Colin Bear in the fifth and an RBI single from Will Watson in the sixth.

Michael Russo pitched five and one third innings, allowing eight hits and three earned runs in his start. Fielding Pittman was credited with the win and improves to 3-0 on the season.

Luke Irvine was given the loss for NSU after a five and one third stint that allowed four runs off ten hits.

Tomorrow series will wrap up at 1 p.m.