SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State rebounded in a big way from Saturday's loss with an 11-4 victory over Georgia Southern on Sunday afternoon to take the series from the Sun Belt Conference foe. With the win, Texas State improves to 12-14-1 on the season but 8-4 in the SBC for the most wins in the conference and a spot atop the conference rankings.
 
The Bobcats used three home runs from Granger Studdard, Ben McElroy and Tanner Hill and nine hits overall to score early and often against the Eagles Sunday. Georgia Southern scored first with an unearned run in the top of the first inning, but Texas State answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. After Cedric Vallieres reached on an error, Studdard knocked his third home run of the season to put the Bobcats on top after one inning of play.
 
Texas State's defense forced consecutive 1-2-3 innings from Georgia Southern at the plate and then ran away with the game in the bottom of the third inning, all with two outs. Vallieres and David Paiz both earned two-out walks, and Studdard plated his third run of the day when he followed with a single to score Vallieres.
 
Next, Hill knocked a double to deep left centerfield to score Paiz and Studdard and give Texas State a 5-1 lead. Cobly Targun took a hit by pitch next, and McElroy followed with his second home run of the year, a three-run roundtripper to give the Bobcats an 8-1 lead. Both of his homers this year were three-run bombs to bust games open.
 
The Bobcats didn't slow down. Next, Derek Scheible reached on a hit by pitch. After the pressure at the plate, Scheible applied pressure around the bases when he stole second to force a throwing error and advanced to third. With him at third, freshman counterpart Luke Sherley knocked a single to right field to plate the seventh run of the inning and put Texas State up 9-1.
 
Texas State didn't look back after that. The Bobcats scored two more runs in the fifth on a solo homer from Hill and when Cory Geisler knocked in Scheible for his second run of the day.
 
Jeremy Hallonquist struck out six batters in the first weekend start of his career. He threw 94 pitches in 6.1 innings of work, only giving up two hits, two earned runs and two walks, keeping the Eagles off balance early. The redshirt junior from Hallsville, Texas, did not give up a hit until the fifth inning and retired nine consecutive batters in the second, third and fourth inning. In relief, Cory Geisler struck out two for the Bobcats over 2.2 innings.
 
Texas State's next action will come at UTSA at 6 p.m. Tuesday in baseball's second installment of the I-35 Rivalry. The Bobcats made a thrilling comeback in the seventh inning to beat the Roadrunners, 11-7, in their last meeting on March 17.
































 

@smdrjoe That's what's up. @TxStateBaseball is what's up. #TXST #EatEmUp #BattleCry — Nathan Smith (@nssmithtx) March 29, 2015

If you aren't at the @TxStateBaseball game you're missing out! #EatEmUpCats ???? — Jordan. (@searcyyyy) March 29, 2015