GAME NOTES | VIDEO | AUDIO | ESPN3 (Saturday Only) | LIVE STATS | TWITTER | WEATHER FORECASTSAN MARCOS – Texas State and Troy will make the first meeting between the two teams with a three-game Sun Belt Conference series this weekend at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Saturday's game will be televised locally on KBVO, across the Southeast on CST and nationally on
ESPN3.
Game Info: Texas State (24-21, 12-9 SBC) vs. Troy (21-24, 8-12 SBC)
Site: Bobcat Ballpark – San Marcos, Texas
Date: Friday-Sunday, May 2-4
Time: Friday – 6:30 p.m. | Saturday – 3 p.m. | Sunday – 1 p.m.
Probable Pitching MatchupsFriday: #31 RHP
Austen Williams (6-1, 3.11) vs. #28 LHP Shane McCain (3-3, 3.21)
Saturday: #32 RHP
Taylor Black (4-4, 3.12) vs. #20 RHP Tanner Hicks (2-7, 4.97)
Sunday: #21 RHP
Lucas Humpal (3-4, 3.31) vs. TBA
The Series The Bobcats and Trojans have never met in their histories. Troy is coming off a 2-1 series loss at home against UT Arlington, a team the Bobcats swept, and have lost five of the team's last six games. Meanwhile, the Bobcats are coming off two losses in a row, but one was to No. 2 UL Lafayette despite outhitting the Ragin' Cajuns, 8-1. The game before that, the Bobcats upset UL Lafayette, 10-3, for Texas State's first win over a ranked team this season and handing the Cajuns one of just three conference losses this season.
On the TrojansTroy is still looking for the team's third weekend starter this season. As a staff, the Trojans are pitching a 4.50 ERA. Shane McCain, Friday's lefty starter is, by far, the team's best starter with just a 3.21 ERA and 78 strikeouts on the year. Saturday the Bobcats will face Tanner Hicks who hovers around a 5.00 ERA and is just 2-7 on the season. After that, the Trojans will go TBA for Sunday, but Ben Tidwell (1-1, 3.50, 32K, 19 BB, .250 OBA) may get the nod.
As for the bats, Troy's David Hall (.366) and Garrett Pitts (.352) lead the pack. After them, Jakob Nixon in just 33 at bats has a .303 batting average but nobody else is above .285. Hall leads the team with nine home runs, but Trevin Hall and Nick Masonia can bring the power as they have combined for 11 roundtrippers on the season.
Troy's opponents have committed 20 more errors than the Trojans this season, and of 244 runs, only 41 of them have been unearned.
On the BobcatsThe Bobcats had a positive weekend against No. 2 UL Lafayette, beating the Ragin' Cajuns, 10-3, on Saturday and outhitting the powerful offensive team, 8-1, in a close loss Sunday. The Bobcats will look to take ride that momentum into the next conference series.
Garrett Mattlage has been on fire, pushing his hitting streak to a team-high 12 games and his reached base streak to 14. He is batting a team-leading .324 on the season but an even better .388 in SBC action. He's been receiving help from
Cory Geisler who is hitting .377 in conference play and .325 in the last 10 games, second only to Mattlage. Freshman
Granger Studdard has done well in the last 10 as he is third in batting average, second in slugging percentage, tied for first in on-base percentage and RBI and sits third in hits.
The starting rotation is solid as usual. The Bobcats kept the most powerful offense in the SBC in check last weekend and basically shut down Georgia State, the second best offense in the league, before that. While
Austen Williams and
Taylor Black have earned run averages of 3.11 and 3.12 on the season, it's actually been
Lucas Humpal who has been hot on the mound lately. In the last 10 games, he leads the team in ERA (0.68), opposing batting average (.087), hit allowed (four), runs allowed (three) and earned runs allowed (1). In conference action, he has the lowest ERA of the trio at 2.91, just below Black's 2.92.
A Look AheadThe Bobcats are rapidly approaching the end of the season. After this weekend, Texas State will host UALR next weekend, travel to Texas for the midweek and finish up the regular season at UT Arlington before heading to Mobile, Ala., for the Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament.
