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San Antonio, Texas – Home runs from Kyle Kubitza and Casey Kalenkosky helped propel No. 25 Texas State past UTSA, 7-6, on Sunday afternoon at Roadrunner Field. The Bobcats defeated UTSA for the eighth consecutive time as Texas State won its fourth straight game in sweeping the I-35 Rivalry Series against the Roadrunners.
Colton Turner (7-1) won his seventh game of the season as the Bobcats improved to 31-16 overall and 20-7 in the Southland Conference. Texas State took a three-game lead in the Southland Conference standings after Stephen F. Austin was swept by Sam Houston State this weekend.
Jeff McVaney earned his third save in three days after pitching a scoreless ninth inning for his sixth save this season.
UTSA starter Jordan Langley (4-4) had his record evened on the season after he was saddled with his fourth loss this year. He allowed five earned runs over 2 1/3 innings as Texas State chased the UTSA starter in less than three innings for the second straight day.
Tyler Sibley and Kubitza both moved up the Texas State record books in Sunday's game. Sibley passed former Bobcat, Laurn Randell, for the record for career runs scored with 170 when he came home on Kubitza's grand slam in the second inning. Sibley, who entered the game tied with Randell with 169 runs scored, finished the game 1-for-5 with a single and run scored.
Kubitza tied the Texas State career record for walks as part of a 3-for-4 game with a grand slam, a triple, a single and four RBIs. Kubitza walked for the 110th time in his career, tying former Bobcats, Paul Goldschmidt and Wade Haynes, for the Texas State record. The four runs-batted-in brought Kubitza's career total to 128, which puts him in third for career RBIs at Texas State, while the home run was the junior's 24th of his career, the fourth most all-time for the Bobcats.
Bret Atwood (2-for-5) had a pair of hits and a run scored as he recorded his fourth consecutive game with at least two hits. Kalenkosky (1-for-4) hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning that proved to be the game winner.
After the Roadrunners hit a solo homer in the bottom of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead, Texas State answered with five runs in the top of the second to grab a 5-1 advantage. An RBI single from Sibley preceded Kubitza's grand slam that cleared the wall in left-center field for a four-run Bobcat lead.
The Roadrunners came back with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to cut their deficit to one, 5-4, and that score would remain until the seventh inning when the Bobcats put the first four batters on base en route to scoring two runs for a 7-4 lead. Kubitza tripled off the wall in left field to begin the inning, and Kalenkosky followed with a towering two-run home run to left-center field for his 17th of the season, one shy of the Texas State single-season record of 18 held by both Paul Goldschmidt and Luke Cannon.
The scoring would not cease after the seventh inning as UTSA hit its third home run of the game in the bottom of the eighth inning to again cut the Roadrunners' deficit to one, 7-6. But the Bobcats turned to McVaney for the third day in a row to close the door on a UTSA comeback as he retired three of the four batters he faced to secure the victory.
Texas State has Monday off before returning to action on Tuesday against Texas A&M. The Bobcats will travel to College Station for a 6:35 p.m. game against the Aggies.
