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San Marcos, Texas – Tyler Sibley led off the game with Sam Houston State on Friday afternoon with a home run to deep left-center field as the Texas State baseball team rolled to a 13-2 victory over the Bearkats on day three of the Southland Conference Tournament hosted by Texas State at Bobcat Ballpark.
No. 1 seed Texas State now moves on to play No. 8 seed Nicholls on Friday night at 7 p.m. in a rematch from the first round when the Colonels defeated the Bobcats, 6-0. Nicholls has wins over Texas State and Sam Houston State for a 2-0 record thus far, while the Bobcats are 2-1 after defeating Southeastern Louisiana and Sam Houston State.
Texas State will need to win on Friday night against Nicholls to stay alive in the double-elimination Southland Conference Tournament. If the Bobcats win Friday night, they will again meet the Colonels on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. for a chance to go to the championship game.
The Southland Conference Tournament championship game will be played on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Bobcat Ballpark.
Sibley's blast would set the tone for the Bobcat offense early as the team scored 11 runs through the first four innings en route to an 11-run victory.
In the second, the Bobcats (37-21) sent four runners around the bases thanks in part to a pair of Bearkat errors that extended the inning. Three of the first four batters who came up reached base as part the first of two four-run innings for Texas State.
Leading 5-1 heading into the third inning, Texas State pushed four more runs across the plate as both Clint Vest and Sibley delivered two-RBI singles in the frame to put the Bobcats ahead, 9-1.
Casey Kalenkosky hit a one-out single to right field in the fourth inning before Andrew Stumph walked and Kyle Kubitza singled to bring home Kalenkosky for the team's 10th run of the day. Cory Falvey followed with a single before an RBI groundout from CVest put the Bobcats ahead, 11-2.
Kalenkosky then came through with a towering two-run homer in the seventh inning to left-center field that game the Bobcats an 11-run lead. The home run was Kalenkosky's 20th of the season to add to his Texas State single-season record that he established on Thursday against Southeastern Louisiana. Kalenkosky is currently sixth in the NCAA in home runs.
Texas State starter Colton Turner shut down the Bearkats (35-25) in the seventh inning to secure the run-rule victory for the Bobcats. Turner (9-2) won for the ninth time this season as he went the distance for the first time in his career, limiting the Bearkats to just two runs over seven innings. He struck out two and walked just one in the victory.
At the plate, Sibley finished 3-for-5 with four RBIs and a run scored, while Kalenkosky (2-for-5) was one of five Bobcats with two hits on the afternoon.
First pitch for the Texas State and Nicholls game is set for 7 p.m. Friday night at Bobcat Ballpark.
Texas State head coach Ty Harrington:
“You can go back to the beginning of the game and obviously we were able to take advantage of mistakes the made. I thought offensively we had great at bats. We grinded in every at bat. I thought we did an amazing job at grinding at bats out. Colton was unbelievable today. They were a very aggressive-hitting team and he was able to get a lot of first pitch outs. The second part of the day was the defensive side of it. Christian Gallegos played a great game at shortstop again today. There's a lot of positive things defensively that if we can handle the baseball like that and pitch like that we have a chance to do some fun things.”
“Colton was able to get the ball and force the ball in the strike zone early on each hitter.”
Colton Turner:
“My mind set today was go out there and go as many innings as I could because in order to win this tournament you have to have a lot of pitching and I knew that by me going seven or eight innings would help our bullpen out a lot later in the game. So I was just happy that I could get the job done today.”
On his run support- “It gives me a lot of confidence. I'm considered the young guy so they come out and give me run support I try to help them out on the mound.”
Tyler Sibley:
“This is something that we pride ourselves on all season long is bracing adversity. It started today and we have to come out tonight and get another one.”
On giving Colton a lot of run support- “Usually he's on Sundays and Sundays are grind-it-out days. We know that it's on the offense to go out there and get Colton's comfort level situated.”
