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College Station, Texas – Texas State avoided being shutout in two consecutive games for the first time since 2000 but could not come through with a victory as the Bobcats fell to No. 6 Texas A&M in College Station, 5-1, on Tuesday night at Blue Bell Park.
Garrett Mattlage's RBI double with two outs in the seventh inning put the Bobcats on the scoreboard and broke up Texas A&M's 4-0 shutout at the time. The double was the freshman's second of the season and brought home Brooks Orton from second base for the team's lone run of the ballgame.
The Bobcats hit the ball hard all night and finished the game with nine hits as a team. Several sharply hit balls by Texas State on Tuesday night were right at Aggie defenders and resulted in tough outs.
Texas A&M improved to 38-14 overall with the win, while the Bobcats dropped to 29-21 in the team's 50th game of the season.
The Aggies took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning and extended their advantage to 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning with a solo home run. Following the Bobcats run in the top of the seventh, Texas A&M pushed across an unearned run in the bottom of the frame for the final 5-1 count.
Redshirt freshman Taylor Black (2-3) was charged with his third loss of the season after allowing four runs on 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out one and walked two.
Aggie starter Daniel Mengden (2-3) held the Bobcats to just one run on seven hits over seven innings on the mound to pick up his second win of the season.
Texas State used four arms out of the bullpen over the final 2 2/3 innings. Ross Goebel and Covey Morrow closed out the sixth inning before Austen Williams pitched the seventh and Dylan Adamek pitched a perfect eighth.
At the plate, Tyler Sibley finished the game with 2 for 4, while Isaac Nuti matched the effort with a two-hit day. Mattlage finished 1 for 3 with one RBI and Orton went 1 for 4 with a run scored.
Senior Jeff McVaney saw his 11-game hitting streak come to an end as part of a 0 for 4 day at the plate.
Texas State will head straight from College Station to Natchitoches, La., its final three-game series of the 2012 regular season. The Bobcats will play the first of the three-game set at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday against Northwestern State.
