Baseball | 5/11/2017 8:22:00 AM

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State baseball team will hit the road for the final Sun Belt Conference series away from home this weekend, as the Bobcats will face Louisiana May 12-14 at Moore Field.
 
TXST (24-25, 10-14 SBC) has posted a 4-14 record over its past 18 outings, but the maroon and gold is 2-2 in its last four games after taking a midweek contest at UTSA and winning once against Georgia State. After starting conference play with a 5-1 record, the Bobcats have since posted a 5-13 record and just one series victory (over ULM). They are also 6-13 on the road.
 
Louisiana (30-19-1, 14-9-1 SBC) has dropped its last two SBC series and is just 3-5 in its last eight games. The Ragin' Cajuns had a nine-game win streak prior to the last eight outings. They won both midweek games against Louisiana Tech and McNeese State. UL is 17-7 at home this season.

Series Info: Texas State at Louisiana
Site: Moore Field – Lafayette, Louisiana
Dates: Friday, May 12 – Sunday, May 14
Time: Friday – 6 pm LIVE STATS | Saturday – 6 pm LIVE STATS | Sunday – 1 pm LIVE STATS
Radio: KTSW 89.9 FM
All-Time Record: UL leads 19-9

Probable Pitching Matchups
Friday: #18 LHP Wes Engle (2-2, 6.16 ERA) vs. #17 LHP Gunner Leger (9-2, 1.47 ERA)
Saturday: #36 RHP Nicholas Fraze (4-2, 4.79 ERA) vs. #2 LHP Colten Schmidt (1-1, 3.21 ERA)
Sunday: #32 RHP Cam Baird (1-5, 5.32 ERA) vs. #30 LHP Hogan Harris (3-2, 2.62 ERA)

LAST TIME OUT
Texas State lost the series finale to Georgia State 11-8 on May 5 at Bobcat Ballpark. Junior Dylan Paul finished 1-for-3 with three RBIs, and he extended his career-best hitting streak to 10 games. Junior Derek Scheible and sophomore Jonathan Ortega both registered two hits and combined for two RBIs and three runs scored. Junior Cam Baird started on the mound and did not factor into the decision after conceding three runs on four hits in 4.1 innings. Sophomore Brandon Lewis (0-2) was tagged with the loss after conceding three runs on three hits in an inning of work. Four other Bobcats took a turn on the mound, including a scoreless 2.1-inning performance from senior Joe Powell. Bryce Conley was GSU's starter, and he left after giving up five runs on three hits in the first 4.1 frames. Tanner Thomson (3-3) earned the win after tossing a scoreless 2.0 innings of relief. Will Kilgore finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored, while Nick Gatewood, Darius Sewell and Cam Sperry all added two hits. Justin Jones tallied three RBIs, Sewell added two RBIs and Ryan Blanton, Romero Greer and Luke Leonard all scored twice.
 
HOFFMAN NAMED CoSIDA ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT
Theodore Hoffman was named to the 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-District 7 Baseball First Team, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced Thursday morning. The Brenham, Texas, native picked up the accolade after carrying a 4.00 cumulative grade-point average in marketing. He is the only District 7 honoree with a perfect GPA. He is also currently the only Bobcat to start all 46 games this season, and he leads Texas State in batting average (.345), hits (68), doubles (13), home runs (13), RBIs (41), runs scored (43), and slugging percentage (.624). The award is the first of its kind for Hoffman and the fifth by a member of the TXST baseball team in school history. He joins Justin Fiske (2007), Paul Goldschmidt (2009), Tyler Sibley (2011, '12) and Casey Kalenkosky (2012). The CoSIDA Academic All-District® teams are divided into eight geographic districts, with Texas State falling into District 7. Hoffman is one of just three outfielders across all eight districts with a perfect 4.00 grade-point average, joining Brown's Sam Grigo out of District 1 and Michigan State's Dan Chmielewski out of District 5. First team academic all-district honorees advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be selected at the end of November.
 
AS THE CALENDAR TURNS
Texas State has seen massive momentum swings each time the calendar has flipped to a new month so far this season. The Bobcats initially posted a 3-9 record in February before erupting for a record-breaking 14-4 mark in March. Texas State then went 5-13 in April and has already kicked off May 1-0. Texas State posted a .294 batting average and a 6.95 ERA in February, a .307 average and a 4.24 ERA in March, and a .261 average and 5.58 ERA in April. So far, the Bobcats are hitting .284 with a 9.50 ERA in May.
 
WHERE THEY STAND
TXST is currently 10-14 in league play and sits in a tie for seventh place in the SBC standings. If the season were to end today, the Bobcats would be one of four teams to play an opening-round, single-elimination game on May 23. They would face current No. 9 seed Appalachian State for the right to advance to the main double-elimination bracket. This weekend's opponent, Louisiana, is currently in fifth place and would receive a bye past the opening round. The top six currently includes UTA, South Alabama, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Louisiana, and Troy. The teams slated to compete in the two play-in games are Arkansas State, Texas State, Appalachian State and Little Rock. Georgia State and ULM are presently on the outside looking in.
 
A NEW FORMAT THIS YEAR
Beginning with the 2017 season, the Sun Belt Conference will conduct its baseball regular season with divisional play. Two divisions will be comprised of six teams each, and divisional champions will be awarded at the end of the year based on the winning percentage against all teams, regardless of division. The 2017 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship will be seeded with the division winners as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, with the No. 1 seed being awarded to the divisional winner with the best conference winning percentage. The number of teams playing in the conference championship will increase from eight to 10. This will cause two additional games to be played. The first round games will include the No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed and the No. 7 seed vs. the No. 10 seed, with both contests conducted as single-elimination games on Tuesday of tournament week. The conference tournament is set for May 23-28 at J.I. Clements Stadium on the campus of Georgia Southern.
 
BOBCATS BOAST TOP ATTENDANCE NUMBERS
Since the NCAA began tracking attendance figures in 2014, Texas State has boasted the second-best attendance in the Sun Belt Conference. From 2014-16, the Bobcats welcomed 120,802 (1,328/game) patrons to Bobcat Ballpark. During the first 30 home games of this season, TXST has an average attendance of 1,506, which is good for 40th in the nation. The Bobcats have also welcomed the two largest crowds in school history this year, with the record of 3,017 coming in a victory over Texas on March 21. There were also 2,952 who entered Bobcat Ballpark to watch Texas State take on Texas A&M March 28. Adding in games against Purdue (2,068) and Baylor (2,002), Texas State has already welcomed a school record four separate crowds of 2,000 or more fans this season. The previous school record of three 2K+ crowds was set in 2014. With three games left in the home schedule, the Bobcats have already welcomed a school-record 45,172 fans.

-TxStateBobcats.com-