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San Marcos, Texas – The fourth largest crowd in Texas State baseball history witnessed history on Friday evening at Bobcat Ballpark as the Bobcats shut out visiting Notre Dame, 6-0, marking the first time in school history that the team has notched three consecutive shutout wins. A crowd of 1,882 was on hand as Texas State won its fourth consecutive game and extended its scoreless innings pitched streak to 32 innings.
The Texas State pitching staff recorded a 6-0 shutout against Houston on Sunday, February 26 before keeping No. 18 TCU off the scoreboard on Tuesday in a 1-0 victory. Friday evening's shutout win for the Bobcats lowered the team's ERA to 1.59 on the season. In addition, Texas State starting pitchers have not allowed an earned run over the past five games.
“To shut out a team like that is impressive because they are a very offensive team,” said head coach Ty Harrington.
Notre Dame (5-2) entered Friday's game hitting .335 as a team and having scored 47 runs over its first six games of the season.
Friday night's starting pitcher Colton Turner (1-0) stymied the Fighting Irish bats for the majority of his 6 2/3 innings on the mound, limiting Notre Dame to seven hits while striking out six batters. The junior lowered his season ERA 0.44 while picking up his first win of the season.
“Colton has had three really good outings, but tonight he was dialed in and showed a lot of confidence in what he was trying to do,” Harrington said. “He got better as the game went along.”
Relief pitchers Donnie Hart, Ross Goebel and Scott Grist combined to shut down the Fighting Irish for the final 2 1/3 innings to secure the shutout.
For the second straight game, the Bobcats (6-3) jumped on the scoreboard in the first inning to take an early 2-0. Tyler Sibley extended his on-base streak to nine games when he began the inning with a single. Morgan Mickan followed with a single to center to put two runners on, and three batters later, Andrew Stumph sent a pitch back through the middle for a 2-RBI single and a two-run cushion for the home team.
Stumph came through again in the bottom of the third inning when he hit an RBI single that brought home Jeff McVaney for a 3-0 Bobcat advantage.
A Notre Dame error allowed the fourth run of the game to score for the Bobcats in the fourth inning, and then Texas State tacked on two more in the fifth inning after a single from Brooks Orton plated both Stumph and Nick Smelser for a 6-0 Texas State lead that proved to be the final tally.
Stumph (3 for 4) and Smesler (3 for 4) both notched three-hit games for the Bobcats, while Stumph's three RBI performance was a season high for the Bobcat catcher. Orton finished 2 for 4 with a pair of RBIs, while Casey Kalenkosky increased his hitting streak to eight games with a 1 for 5 day at the plate.
The Bobcats and Fighting Irish will play the second game of their three game set on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Bobcat Ballpark. Junior RHP Travis Ballew (2-0) will make his third start of the season for Texas State.
