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San Marcos, Texas – The Texas State baseball team had its four-game winning streak versus Texas Tech snapped on Monday night as the Red Raiders came from behind to beat the Bobcats, 8-5, in front of 1,667 fans at Bobcat Ballpark.
The third largest crowd at Bobcat Ballpark this season saw Texas State fall to 23-13 overall this season as the team dropped to 2-7 in midweek games. Texas Tech, which came off a series against Texas over the weekend, improved to 24-15 this season.
Aaron Corwin (1-0) came in to pick up the win after tossing 1 1/3 innings of scoreless ball for the visitors, and John Neely earned his sixth save of the season after going 2 1/3 innings in relief.
Travis Ballew got the start for Texas State and set a pair of career highs. The sophomore went five innings on the mound and struck out five batters, both personal bests for the right hander. He left with a 3-1 lead, but the Bobcats could not hang on.
Lee Colon (1-3) was charged with the loss for the Bobcats as he dropped his third decision of the season, allowing three runs in an inning on the hill.
Despite not being able to put together a big inning, the Bobcats were able to hold a two-run advantage through the bottom of the fifth thanks to single runs in the first, second and fifth innings.
In the first, Jeff McVaney reached on an RBI infield single that he hit off Texas Tech starter Robbie Kilcrease to bring home Tyler Sibley. Sibley led off the inning with a single to center field before coming home for a 1-0 Texas State lead.
The Bobcats tacked on one more in the second after loading the bases with one out. Sibley hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field that allowed Cory Falvey to score easily from third base to put the Bobcats in front by a 2-0 score.
After the Red Raiders got on the scoreboard in the top of the fifth inning with a run to make the score 2-1, the Bobcats responded with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning to retake a two-run advantage. A timely two-out double over the head of the TTU left fielder from Andrew Stumph brought him Sibley to put Texas State ahead, 3-1. Sibley singled to left field with one out for his 18th multi-hit game of the season before stealing second base, his 15th stolen base of the season, earlier in the inning.
But the Red Raider bullpen was able to calm the Texas State bats, while the Texas Tech offense heated up as the game went on. The Red Raiders scored one in the sixth and four in the seventh to grab a 6-3 lead and hold on from there.
After Texas Tech added two in the top of the ninth, the Bobcats got a pair of RBI hits from Sibley and Kyle Kubitza in the ninth inning to bring their deficit to three, 8-5, but that is as close as the team would get before a strikeout sealed the victory for the Red Raiders.
Texas State will return to Southland Conference action later this week when the team travels to Northwestern State for a three-game set beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
