Box Score
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San Marcos, Texas – Mitchell Pitts tied his career high with seven strikeouts, and Casey Kalenkosky led a Bobcat offense that pounded out 11 hits as the Texas State baseball team won its opening day game 7-2 on Friday afternoon at Bobcat Ballpark in front of 2,386 fans.
Pitts tossed six innings of two-hit baseball while allowing just one earned run as he picked up his first win of 2011. Making his eighth career start for the Bobcats, Pitts improved to 5-1 in his career as a starter after allowing just four Nebraska hitters to reach base.
Kalenkosky went 3-for-3 with double, two runs scored and two RBIs in his Texas State debut. A transfer from Cisco Junior College, Kalenkosky reached base in all five of his plate appearances with a pair of singles to go along with being hit by two pitches.
Senior Bret Atwood and junior Tyler Sibley each had a pair of hits for the Bobcats as the team's one-through-four hitters combined to go 8-for-14 on Friday. Atwood had a double and a pair of runs scored, and Sibley hit the team's first home run of 2011 while going 2-for-4 at the plate.
Sibley got the Bobcats off to a good start as he roped a ball down the left field line for a leadoff double in the bottom half of the first inning. After Atwood laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Sibley to third, Kyle Kubitza worked the count full before lining a single back up the middle to plate the first run of the game.
Nebraska knotted the game at 1-1 with a leadoff home run by Josh Scheffert in the second inning.
Texas State had an opportunity to regain the lead in the bottom half of the fourth inning as the Bobcats used a pair of Nebraska miscues wrapped around a bunt single from Joey Fuda to load the bases with one out. However, Nebraska pitcher Tyler Niederklein was able to induce an inning-ending double play to halt the Bobcats.
The score would not remain tied much longer though as Texas State broke through for two runs in the fifth inning to take a 3-1 lead. Atwood led off the frame with a double to right-center field and two batters later Kalenkosky doubled over the head of the Cornhusker center fielder to bring home Atwood. Catcher Andrew Stumph came to the plate next and drove a pitch back through the middle that brought home Kalenkosky for a two-run Bobcat advantage.
Texas State tacked on one more in the sixth inning when Sibley hit a two-out homer over the left field wall to put the Bobcats ahead by three, 4-1.
After Pitts exited the game after the sixth, preseason all-American Carson Smith came in to throw two innings of relief. Nebraska pushed across one run on a sacrifice fly in the sixth, but Smith got some defensive help from teammate Jeff McVaney who made a fully extended diving catch left field to get the Bobcats out of the inning. In the seventh, Nebraska had a pair of hits but Smith struck out the side to keep Texas State in front, 4-2.
A sacrifice fly by Joey Fudy that plated Kalenkosky gave the Bobcats a 5-2 lead after seven innings, and Texas State tacked on two more in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the team a five-run cushion going into the final inning.
Head coach Ty Harrington turned to senior Joseph Dvorsky to close the door, and he did just that. Dvorsky needed just 11 pitches to sit down the Cornhuskers in order in the ninth for the team's first win of the season.
Texas State returns to action on Saturday, February 19 in the second day of the Texas State Tournament at Bobcat Ballpark. The Bobcats play Missouri State at 3 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the gate.
