Box Score MONROE, La. – Texas State continued to produce a strong offense, matching Friday night's output with 16 hits Saturday, but, unfortunately the Bobcats were betrayed by seven errors on defense to drop to UL Monroe, 17-12, in the second game of the series Saturday night. With the loss, the Bobcats fall to 19-15 on the season and 8-6 in Sun Belt Conference play.
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Despite the errors, there were plenty of positives for the Bobcats on offense.
Garrett Mattlage matched a career high with four hits in the game, going 4-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored.
Cory Geisler followed up a four-hit night on Friday with three more hits and three runs scored Saturday night while
Matt Smith,
Tyler Pearson and
Trey Hicks all knocked two apiece.
One of Pearson's hits was a home run, his fourth of the season, while
Granger Studdard knocked his team-leading fifth home run, a two-run shot, after hitting a grand slam Friday night. His only hit of the night was the two-run homer, but he managed two more RBI on a couple of groundouts to be the leading RBI-hitter for Texas State with four in the game. Pearson finished with three.
Also, the Bobcat bats broke a scoreless streak of 14.1 innings by ULM closer Tyler Bray. He had not let in a run in seven consecutive appearances, spanning 14.1 innings, until Saturday night when the Bobcats put two on him.
Unfortunately for the Bobcats, the team's defense didn't follow suit, racking up seven errors on the night. The errors led to 10 unearned runs for the Warhawks. The Bobcats won the game, 11-7, in earned runs.
The worst inning for the Bobcats came in the third when Texas State allowed five unearned runs on three hits, three errors and a walk. One runner, Justin Stawychny, reached on an error, went to second on an error, took third on a fielder's choice and scored on the third error of the inning.
Still, while the Bobcats went down, 9-2, after three innings, they showed steely resolve to keep coming back. The Bobcats scored a run in every inning but the ninth from that point with three in the fifth and seventh innings and two in the eight. The Bobcats kept coming back. The Warhawks could never put Texas State away until finally the ninth inning.
The Bobcats will look to bounce back in the rubber match at 1 p.m. Sunday with the series on the line. After that, Texas State will play at UTSA at 6 p.m. Tuesday before hosting Georgia State in another SBC series over Easter Weekend.
