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San Marcos, Texas – Junior Travis Ballew struck out a career-high 11 batters in a complete game, three-hit shutout to propel the Bobcats to a 6-0 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday evening at Bobcat Ballpark in front of 2,181 fans – the fourth largest crowd in Texas State baseball history.

The Bobcats have now recorded a team-record four consecutive shutout victories and not allowed a run to score over the past 41 1/3 innings – another team record. The streak began on February 26 in the team's second game of a three-game set with Houston and has spanned the past four games, including a game with No. 18 TCU and the first two games of a three-game series versus Notre Dame.

In addition, opponents have not scored an earned run off a Texas State starting pitcher during the team's last six games. The Bobcat pitching staff has a 1.44 ERA to begin the season with just 15 earned runs allowed in 93 2/3 innings.

Ballew began Saturday night's game by retiring the first seven hitters of the game before a bloop single from Conor Biggio marked the first hit of the evening. Ballew responded by retiring the next 14 batters he faced – including seven strikeouts – spanning the third through eighth innings.

Ballew (3-0) won his third straight start to begin the season and lowered his ERA to 1.33. The righty did not walk a batter and needed just over 100 pitches to complete the game.

“It's really unbelievable what our pitchers have done,” said head coach Ty Harrington. “Tonight, Ballew's competitiveness and focus and determination was all there. He was really good with his fastball command.”

With the victory, Texas State (7-3) extended its winning streak to five games, while Notre Dame fell to 5-3.

The Bobcat offense put up six runs for the fourth time in the past five games and got started when Brooks Orton began the fourth inning with a double to left-center field. One batter later, Casey Kalenkosky's RBI groundout gave the Bobcats a 1-0 lead.

Texas State broke open the game in the fifth inning with four runs to jump in front, 5-0. Orton notched a 2-RBI single with the bases loaded before RBI singles from Kalenkosky and Jeff McVaney gave the Bobcats a five-run cushion.

The Bobcats then added an insurance run in the eighth inning when Nick Smelser hit a sacrifice fly that plated Kalenkosky for the final 6-0 score.

Orton led the way offensively for Texas State with a 2 for 4 day that included a pair of RBIs and runs scored. The freshman increased his batting average to .412 with his two-hit performance.