JONESBORO, Ark. – Texas State received a lights-out performance from Jeremy Hallonquist on the mound to lead the Bobcats to a 12-3 victory over Arkansas State on Sunday. The win clinches a spot in the Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament that the Bobcats will host on May 25-29 at Bobcat Ballpark as they improve to 27-25 overall and 14-13 in the SBC.
 
Hallonquist went the whole way for his first complete game this season and second of his career. He struck out six, walked just one and only allowed three hits in nine innings. The senior came up big for the Bobcats in the same weekend he graduated and posted some impressive velocity throughout the game.
 
Teamed with his defense, Hallonquist put on a dominating performance. He sat the Red Wolves down in order, 1-2-3, in seven of the nine innings. He was able to get run support from the Bobcats as well. They grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the second inning off a two-RBI hit from Jonathan Ortega.
 
After Arkansas State fought back to go up, 3-1, Texas State exploded for four runs in the sixth inning. Dylan Paul kept the pressure on when he added a two-run homer in the seventh, and the Bobcats left no doubt in the ninth with four more runs on five hits to close out strong.
 
Texas State will look to keep the momentum rolling into the midweek game at Texas and the final weekend of conference play at UT Arlington.
 
 
WHO STOOD OUT
Jeremy Hallonquist / RHP / R-Senior / Hallsville, Texas
The redshirt senior pitched an outstanding game, retiring Arkansas State in order in seven of his nine innings pitched. He struck out six and only gave up two free bases with one walk and a hit by pitch. On his graduation weekend, the Hallsville native came up big for the Bobcats.
 
Dylan Paul / OF/IF / Sophomore / Katy, Texas
Paul knocked his third home run of the season to give the Bobcats 41 as a team on the year. He saved it for the seventh inning to help put the game out of reach, pushing the score from 6-3 to 8-3. In the last five games, he has 11 hits, eight runs, four RBIs, a homer and three doubles.
 
Jonathan Ortega / IF / Freshman / Victoria, Texas
After Friday's game, Ortega's batting average dipped below .300 for the first time this season. He made up for it, though, with four hits in the last two games of the series, including two on Sunday to net four RBIs. He added a walk. The freshman plated a run with a sacrifice fly and knocked in the first two runs of the game to get the Bobcats started.
 
 
SCORING RECAP

• Top 2^nd – Luke Sherley took a hit by pitch, his third of the weekend, followed by walks for Mickey Scott and Jared Huber to load the bases. Jonathan Ortega knocked a single through the left side to score both Sherley and Scott for an early 2-0 lead. (2 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 left on base)
• Bottom 3^rd – With two outs, nine-hole hitter Jake Bakamus hit a solo home run. (1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 left on base)
• Bottom 5^th – A single, hit by pitch and a walk loaded the bases for Arkansas State. A base hit through the right side plated two runs to put ASU up, 3-2. (2 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 2 left on base)
• Top 6^th – Dylan Paul knocked a big double and pinch hitter Nick Perez and Sherley drew walks behind him to load the bases. With bases loaded, Scott reached on an error to bring in a run. After that, pinch hitter Cody Lovejoy drew a walk to plate another run. An Ortega sacrifice fly brought in another run for the Bobcats, and a Granger Studdard hit up the middle scored another. (4 runs, 2 hits, 1 error, 2 left on base)
• Top 7^th – Theodore Hoffman led off with an infield single, and Paul followed with his third homer of the season to push Texas State's lead to 8-3. (2 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base)
• Top 9^th – Paul reached on an error and pinch hitter Jacob Almendarez sacrifice bunted him over to second. Sherley knocked a single to centerfield, and Scott loaded the bases with a base hit. Felipe Rodriguez knocked in the first RBI with a base knock, and Ortega brought in the next one on a groundout. Studdard reached on an error after that to plate a run, and Tanner Hill plated Rodriguez with a double down the third-base line. (4 runs, 5 hits, 1 error, 2 left on base)

 
 
NOTES

• Jeremy Hallonquist threw the second complete game of his career and notched six strikeouts for the second time this season.
• With his two-RBI single in the second inning, Jonathan Ortega knocked multiple RBIs in a game for the first time since March 19 against Appalachian State. With a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning and a groundout RBI in the ninth, he finished with four RBIs for the second time this season. He now has six multi-RBI games this year. He knocked his second hit in the eighth inning to make it 18 multi-hit games this year.
• The double from Dylan Paul in the sixth inning gave him five consecutive games with a hit. His home run in the seventh made it back-to-back games with multiple hits and four of the last five games with multiple hits. His two-run homer gave him multiple RBIs for the fourth time this season and the Bobcats 41 home runs on the year.
• Luke Sherley knocked a ninth-inning single, his second hit of the day. With that, he has 16 multi-hit games this season.
• Mickey Scott made it back-to-back games with multiple hits, knocking his second hit of the day and fourth in the past two games in the ninth inning.

 
 
NEXT UP
Next up for the Bobcats will be a midweek game at Texas at 6 p.m. followed by the final Sun Belt series of the season at UT Arlington. Then Texas State will return home to host the SBC Championship Tournament on May 25-29.