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San Marcos, Texas – Junior Travis Ballew continued his strong start to the 2012 season as he earned his fourth win in five starts in leading No. 20 Texas State to a 6-1 lead over Stephen F. Austin on Friday night in front of 1,238 fans at Bobcat Ballpark.

Jeff McVaney and Casey Kalenkosky both homered as the Bobcats improved to 12-5 overall and 3-1 in the Southland Conference, while the Lumberjacks dropped to 6-11 overall and 1-3 in the conference.

Ballew tossed 7 2/3 innings and limited SFA to just seven hits and an unearned run while striking out eight batters. The junior did not walk a batter as he lowered his season ERA to 1.59.

The Bobcats started the scoring in the second inning when McVaney hit the first pitch he saw over the left field fence for his third homer of the season. McVaney moved into a tie for sixth in career home runs at Texas State with 23. Later in the inning, Cody Gambill hit an RBI double into the right-center field gap that brought home Andrew Stumph for a 2-0 Bobcat lead.

After an unearned run by Stephen F. Austin in the third, Texas State put together a two-out rally in the fourth inning to take a 5-1 lead. Garrett Mattlage started the rally when he took a four-pitch walk and later came home along with Nick Smelser on a two-RBI single from Cody Lovejoy. Tyler Sibley then knocked in the third run of the inning with a single to right field for his 102^nd career RBI.

Kalenkosky kept the Texas State bats going in the fifth inning as he blasted his fourth home run of the season to put the Bobcats up 6-1. The senior now has 25 homers for his career, tied for third most in Texas State history.

The five-run cushion was more than enough for Ballew as he needed just over 100 pitches to get through 7 2/3 innings. Donnie Hart, Garrett Shepperd and Dylan Adamek combined to close out the final 1 1/3 innings for the Bobcats. Adamek tossed the final inning while striking out a pair.