San Marcos, Texas – Texas State gets little time to enjoy its series victory over Western Athletic Conference leading CSU Bakersfield. The Bobcats are back at it Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. when they host Houston Baptist for the midweek.
 
Scott Grist will receive the start against the Huskies while lefty sophomore Brandon Hammerly will start for HBU. The three hottest batters for the Bobcats coming off the CSUB series are Andrew Stumph (.500), Kevin Sah (.385) and Cody Lovejoy (.333) who combined for 14 hits, nine runs, nine RBI. Stumph slugged .800 with a .538 on base percentage against the Roadrunners.
 
Houston Baptist is no pushover as the Huskies own a 20-20-1 record with a victory over UT Arlington in Arlington this season. The Mavericks are tied with CSU Bakersfield atop the WAC with a 12-6 conference record. Houston Baptist has won three of its last four headed to Tuesday's game, but dropped its most recent game, a 7-6 loss to Northern Colorado.
 
Mike Chamberlain, Luke Clements and Jordan McCoy are Houston Baptist's top hitters at .345, .342 and .333 respectively. Clements is quick around the bases as well, scoring 33 runs with eight steals on the season. He has 52 hits on the year.
 
After Houston Baptist, Texas State will head to San Antonio for a conference series against UTSA this weekend.
 
Fans will be able to follow along with all of the action live on video at www.txstatebobcats.com/showcase or through live audio at www.txstatebobcats.com/radio or 89.9 KTSW. As always, fans can also follow online through live stats here and frequent updates provided throughout the game on the baseball Twitter account - @TxStateBaseball.
 
Game Info
Texas State (20-23) vs. Houston Baptist (20-20-1)

Site: Bobcat Ballpark – San Marcos, Texas
Date: Tuesday, April 30
Time: 6:30 p.m.

Probable Pitching Matchups
#36 RHP Scott Grist (4-2, 4.74 ERA) vs. #22 LHP Brandon Hammerly (1-4, 4.97 ERA)
 
Live Coverage
Video: www.txstatebobcats.com/showcase
Radio: www.txstatebobcats.com/radio and 89.9 KTSW
Live Stats: www.txstatebobcats.com/live_stats
Twitter: www.twitter.com/txstatebaseball
                          
Complete Game Notes
 
Bobcat Bits
CHANGING IT UP
Texas State had a regular rotation of weekend pitchers until two weekends ago. The season started with Kyle Finnegan on Friday, Taylor Black on Saturday and Scott Grist on Sunday. The only change up until that point was Finnegan moving to Sunday and the other two Bobcats sliding up a day. However, Jeremy Hallonquist earned a Saturday start two weekends ago and was relieved by Grist. This past weekend, Lucas Humpal took over Saturday before Grist relieved him and senior stalwart Mitchell Pitts slid into the Sunday slot before lefty specialist Covey Morrow and Finnegan relieved him. Humpal and Hallonquist had been receiving the bulk of the midweek starts, but Tuesday's start against Houston Baptist will go to Grist.
 
PLAYING POWERBALL
Texas State struggled to hit home runs early this season, but the Bobcat bats have come alive in the past 10 games. After hitting just four home runs in the first 33 games, Texas State has blasted six long balls since. Led by Austin O'Neal's first three home runs of his career, Texas State has shown an ability to hit for power. Morgan Mickan and Cody Lovejoy each knocked their first career home runs during the stretch while Andrew Stumph went yard for the first time of 2013 and the 14th time of his career. For the season, Texas State is slugging .357, but the Bobcats have put together a slugging percentage of .452 with seven Bobcats slugging .425 or higher.
 
AUSTIN BURST ONTO THE SCENE
Austin O'Neal was seeing limited time earlier this season, only starting when Texas State faced a left-handed pitcher. Against Louisiana Tech, however, he used the opportunity to burst onto the scene with a 3-for-4 day, adding a three-run homer to stake his claim on a Sunday start. That Sunday, he knocked his second home run en route to a 3-for-5, four-RBI day. Before that weekend, he was batting .229 with 11 hits and six RBI, but since, O'Neal is hitting .394 with 13 hits, five extra-base hits and a team high 14 RBI. His feats earned him recognition as the Western Athletic Conference's Player of the Week for the week of April 15, his first such award of the season. He'll likely see action in the midweek against a lefty starter from Houston Baptist.
 
STUMPH IS BACK
Senior designated hitter Andrew Stumph made his return to the lineup for the Bobcats against Sacramento State, but he didn't show he was all the way back until the midweek game against Texas. He was 2-for-4 with 2 RBI against the Longhorns and followed that with an impressive weekend against Louisiana Tech. This past weekend, he hit his frist home run of 2013. Since getting just one hit in 12 at bats against Sacramento State, Stumph has exploded to go 19-for-46 (.413) to lead the team, and knocked 14 RBI in the past 12 games. For the season, Stumph is averaging .324 (second on the team) with 36 hits and 24 RBI.
 
CLIMBING UP THE RECORD BOOKS
Speaking of Andrew Stumph, he is making his way up the Texas State record books this season. He is fourth all-time in games played (195) and fith in at bats (707). He is fifth in RBI (131) and sits seventh in hits (204) and 9th in total bases (287).
 
Stumph isn't alone though as other Bobcats march into the record books. Morgan Mickan made his way in recently and now is 15th all-time with 27 stolen bases. Quickly charging behind him is Kevin Sah who is third all-time in steals in a season with 22 so far in 2013.
 
Mitchell Pitts, like Stumph, is all over the record books. He is seventh in appearances (63), eighth in innings pitched (218.4) and 13th in strikeouts (164) while Hunter Lemke is tied for fourth all-time in saves with eight, all eight of which came this season, putting him tied for the second most saves in a season with Stephen Smith, and just one save away from Jeff McVaney.
 
CLOSING 'EM OUT
Texas State has found two reliable arms to close out games with left-handed Donnie Hart and right-handed Hunter Lemke, both sidearm throwers. Hart owns the lowest earned run average on the squad at 1.26 in 28.2 innings pitched, only giving up 18 hits while striking out 23 batters and walking just nine, holding opponents to a mere .178 batting average. Meanwhile, Lemke has eight saves (tied for second all-time in a season) and a 2.64 ERA in 30.2 innings pitched. He's struck out 29 batters and is holding opponents to a .234 batting average. The duo has combined for 57 appearances, and Head Coach Ty Harrington has taken to playing them back to back with Hart taking the first of the last two innings and Lemke shutting it down at the end. Hart has begun to see time as a middle reliever instead of a setup man for the closer. 
 
GOING STREAKING
Garrett Mattlage is the hottest streaker for the Bobcats with 19 consecutive games in which he's reached base. That is the longest streak on the team this season. Kevin Sah is behind him with a 12-game active streak. The longest current hitting streak belongs to Austin O'Neal with four consecutive games. Sah and Andrew Stumph own the longest hitting streaks of the year at eight.