Baseball | 4/1/2015 4:48:00 PM

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State and Baylor are set to meet for a three-game series this weekend with a Thursday game in San Marcos at 6 p.m. and a 6:30 p.m. Friday game and 3 p.m. Saturday game in Waco, Texas. It will be the first ever full three-game weekend series between the teams.
 
Series Info: Texas State (12-15-1) vs. Baylor (12-16)
Site: Bobcat Ballpark – San Marcos, Texas; Baylor Ballpark – Waco, Texas
Dates: Thursday, April 2; Friday-Saturday, April 3-4
Times: Thursday – 6 p.m. | Friday – 6:30 p.m. | Saturday – 3 p.m.
 
Probable Pitching Matchups
Thursday: #21 RHP Lucas Humpal (4-2, 5.55 ERA) vs. #22 LHP Daniel Castano (2-3, 1.82 ERA)
Friday: #36 RHP Scott Grist (1-2, 3.33 ERA) vs. #27 RHP Drew Tolson (1-5, 4.44 ERA)
Saturday: #27 RHP Jeremy Hallonquist (2-0, 2.81 ERA) vs. TBA
 
The Series
The Bobcats and Baylor have played 66 games in their all-time series with the Bears having the advantage, 19-47. Last season, the teams met in back-to-back midweek games and split with Texas State winning in San Marcos, 2-0, to give Head Coach Ty Harrington his 500^th career victory.
 
The entire game was scoreless except for the bottom of the eighth inning. Garrett Mattlage scored on a single from Cameron Friess and Cody Lovejoy came in on a single from Tyler Pearson to secure the victory. Chad Young went 6.1 innings with only four hits allowed for the Bobcats while Andrew Boes, Cory Geisler and Hunter Lemke finished off the game. Geisler earned the win while Lemke picked up his ninth save of the season.
 
On the Bears
Baylor has struggled a bit this season, coming into the weekend at 12-16 overall and just 4-5 in the Big 12. On the road, the Bears are 2-7 this year, but 10-6 at home.
 
The Bears are coming off a tough 11-0 loss to Houston, a team the Bobcats beat once already this season. They have lost their last two, but won the three previous to that and five of their previous six before this recent two-game skid.
 
Texas State will have to be ready for leading hitter Logan Brown. He has 29 hits on the season with four doubles and a triple and 11 RBI. Kameron Esthay also has 11 RBI to tie for the team lead but has done it much more efficiently. He has 18 hits: three doubles, a triple and a homer and is slugging .406. Three Bears have 20 hits or more while nine others have 12 hits or more this year.
 
The team's pitching staff has a 5.00 ERA on the season with 163 strikeouts. Their opponents own a 3.38 ERA with 225 strikeouts on the year. Teams are hitting .286 this season against Baylor and in the .270s against the team's two listed starters: Daniel Castano (.274) and Drew Tolson (.272).
 
On the Bobcats
Texas State enters the weekend coming off a loss as well, a close 5-4 loss to I-35 Rival UTSA in San Antonio on Tuesday night. However, the Bobcats scored all four of their runs on four solo home runs with two from Cedric Vallieres. Granger Studdard and Cory Geisler also had home runs in the game. Studdard's bat has heated up with four home runs in the last seven games.
 
In fact, Studdard is hitting .359 over the last 10 games with eight RBI, four doubles and four home runs. He isn't along with the hot bat. Vallieres and freshman shortstop Luke Sherley are both at .333 in the last 10 games and have combined for 12 RBI in that span.
 
The squad will have to continue to hit against Baylor, but the pitching staff will have to show up too. Jeremy Hallonquist picked up a big victory against Georgia Southern on Sunday to secure the top spot in the Sun Belt Conference for the Bobcats. It was his first weekend start for Texas State, and he tallied six strikeouts in 6.1 innings. Lucas Humpal and Scott Grist will be looking to rebound off a tough week last week.
 
A Look Ahead
After Baylor, the Bobcats will host Incarnate Word on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Bobcat Ballpark before taking to the road for more Sun Belt Conference action at UALR. From there, Texas State will host UTSA for the third meeting of the season and then welcome UL Lafayette to Bobcat Ballpark for the weekend series.