Box Score

MOBILE, Ala. – After Western Kentucky added what the Hilltoppers surely thought was an insurance run in the top of the ninth of game one of the Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship Tournament, Texas State came out of its 26-inning funk to score three runs to tie the game. In the 10^th, Cody Lovejoy hit a sacrifice fly to win it, 4-3, for Texas State's fifth walk-off victory of the season. With the win the Bobcats advance to face the SBC's top seed UL Lafayette, the No. 2 team in the country, at 4 p.m. Thursday.
 
Texas State trailed 3-0 headed to the bottom of the ninth inning after All-Sun Belt Conference First Teamer Justin Hageman stymied the Bobcats for eight innings. Hageman only gave up three hits with four walks and six strikeouts before taking a seat for the ninth. Western Kentucky would have liked to see him go the full nine like he did in a 4-1 WKU victory the last time he faced the Bobcats.
 
Instead, Texas State found a way to fight back to tie the game. Granger Studdard started the bottom of the inning with his team-leading 12^th hit by pitch. An Austin O'Neal walk pushed Studdard to second base and he went to third on a Lovejoy fielder's choice. With runners at the corners, Tyler Pearson knocked a single that slithered through the left side to plate Studdard for Texas State's first run of the game and first since last Friday's game at UT Arlington, a span of 26 innings.
 


"It was obviously an exciting moment for us to come back and win," said Head Coach Ty Harrington. "We'd gone a lot of innings without scoring, and, from a coach's perspective, you look at it like your kids never gave in. They kept playing the game."
 
Play they did. Next, David Paiz, in a pinch hitting situation, hit a single through the same hole in the infield as Pearson's to load the bases for the Bobcats. Tanner Hill showed plenty of patience and cool nerves in the next at-bat, drawing a bases loaded walk to pull within one run, 3-2.
 
Cory Geisler had the next opportunity to bring a Bobcat in, and he did his job. With one out, he knocked a fly ball to right centerfield. It was enough to allow Pearson to make the break for home. Western Kentucky catcher Ryan Messex dropped the ball, and Pearson tied the game with a slide through the play at the plate, reminiscent of one in which he was called out just Saturday in a 1-0 loss against UT Arlington.
 
"Baseball is a crazy game sometimes," said Harrington. "When you don't hit balls out of the park, there has to be different elements. Everything kind of fell perfectly for us in the ninth inning, and we also created some things for ourselves too."
 
The Bobcats brought in freshman pitcher Dylan Bein for the 10^th inning and Harrington described his play as electric. He forced a pop up from the first batter and followed with two strikeouts to quickly get through the inning.
 
"We've been in the type of games where we just couldn't get a run across, and, when we put three across in the ninth, it gave us a lot of momentum heading into the 10^th," said Pearson. "That helped us out."
 
Bein and the Bobcat defense was able to keep that momentum going defensively in the 10^th.
 
"I was proud of their efforts late," said Harrington. "A lot of times, with momentum after tying it up like that, it's difficult to keep it going and keep the other team from scoring. Dylan Bein was really good to stop them in the 10^th inning. Bein goes out and puts up a zero to keep momentum on our side."
 
From there, it was time to clinch the game. Studdard started with a walk to put one Bobcat on base with one out, and then O'Neal knocked a timely hit for the Bobcats, a single to right centerfield.
 
"Austin O'Neal's single was huge for us," said Harrington. "It allowed Granger to get to third base. I thought it was a great at-bat to hit the ball the other way and allowed our runner to get an extra 90 feet."
 
With Studdard at third, Lovejoy sent his sacrifice fly to centerfield to plate Studdard for the win, and improve the Bobcats to 5-3 in extra-inning games this season. More importantly, it keeps Texas State in the winner's bracket of the double-elimination conference tournament.
 
Keeping the Bobcats within striking distance for most of the game was starter Taylor Black. He finished with six innings pitched, striking out five while giving up five walks, five hits and two runs. O'Neal led the Bobcats in hits with two on the day. Half of Texas State's six hits came in the final two innings of the game.
 
Texas State made it a captivating debut in the Sun Belt Championship Tournament and will play their next game at 4 p.m. Thursday against the tournament's top seed and No. 2 team in the country UL Lafayette.