GAME 56: Texas State vs. Troy
Time / Date	4 p.m. / Wednesday, May 23
Location	Lafayette, La.
Stadium	Russo Park
Live Stats	Statbroadcast
Video	ESPN+
Audio	KTSW 89.9 FM | TXST All-Access
Game Notes	Texas State
TXST Starter	RHP Nicholas Fraze (6-4, 3.10 ERA)
Troy Starter	RHP Levi Thomas (2-0, 0.90 ERA)

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State baseball team is set for the 2018 Sun Belt Conference Championship, which will be contested May 22-27 at Russo Park in Lafayette, La.

The No. 6-seeded Bobcats (28-26-1, 16-14 SBC) will face No. 3 seed Troy (38-18, 19-11 SBC) at 4 p.m. May 23. The winner of that game will advance to the semifinals of the winner's bracket, while the loser will face elimination the remainder of the week.

The Trojans lead the all-time series 8-5. They swept Texas State in Alabama last year and have won each of the last three series matchups.

The first meeting between the two programs in the brief rivalry came in 2014 when the maroon and gold joined the SBC.

TXST is 7-7 all-time in the SBC Championship, which includes a 1-0 record against Troy (2016).

A LOOK AT TEXAS STATE
•    Texas State is currently 28-26-1 this season and 16-14 in the SBC after ending the regular season on a five-game conference win streak.
•    The Bobcats swept UTA this past weekend, which marked the first sweep by TXST in Arlington since 2007.
•    True freshman Dalton Shuffield leads TXST in batting average (.323), while senior Luke Sherley is the team leader in RBIs (40). Classmate Derek Scheible is the team leader in runs scored (42) and home runs (12). Juniors Jonathan Ortega and Jaylen Hubbard both have a team-best 65 hits.
•    The Bobcats won four of their 10 SBC weekend series this season (Appalachian State, Georgia State, Louisiana, UTA).

A LOOK AT TROY
•    The Trojans are 38-18 overall and finished third in the Sun Belt with a 19-11 league mark.
•    They had a six-game win streak snapped in the season finale against South Alabama.
•    Troy won seven of 10 conference series this season to land in second place in the SBC East Division.
•    The Trojans are a stacked club who feature both the SBC Player of the Year (Joey Denison) and the SBC Freshman of the Year (Rigsby Mosley).
•    Drew Frederic joined Denison on the All-SBC First Team, while Andrew Crane and Matt Sanders accompanied Mosley on the All-SBC Second Team.

ORTEGA NAMED ALL-SBC
•    Jonathan Ortega was named to the 2018 All-Sun Belt Conference Second Team, the league announced May 21.
•    The junior second baseman from Victoria, Texas, picked up All-SBC Second Team accolades for the second-straight year after a dominant 2018 campaign that built off an already stellar career.
•    The 2018 Preseason All-SBC First Team selection has started every game this year and currently ranks second in the league in fielding double plays (45) and assists (165). He is also third in at-bats (223) and sacrifice flies (5), sixth in plate appearances (260) and eighth in total hits (65).
•    He owns a .291 batting average after finishing 65-for-223 in the regular season. He has also racked up 14 doubles, five home runs, 37 runs and 12 stolen bases. He had just five errors for a career-high .983 fielding percentage, and also tallied a .422 slugging percentage and a .368 on-base percentage.
•    Ortega has already etched his name in the Bobcat baseball career record books, as he ranks fourth all-time in doubles (43), fifth in stolen bases (41), sixth in hits (218), total bases (318) and at-bats (714), 13th in runs scored (124) and 14th in games played (170).

WHERE THEY FINISHED
•    TXST landed in sixth place in the Sun Belt with a final record of 16-14 in league play.
•    The Bobcats narrowly avoided the single-elimination round and will face No. 3 Troy in the winner's bracket quarterfinals at 4 p.m. May 23.
•    The top six in the final SBC standings were Coastal Carolina, Louisiana, Troy, South Alabama, Georgia Southern, and TXST.
•    The teams slated to compete in the two opening-round games are Little Rock, UTA, Arkansas State and Georgia State. ULM and Appalachian State will miss the tournament for the second-straight year.

THE IMPROBABLE BYE
•    Texas State ended the regular season on a conference-high five-game win streak to vault into the top six in the league table. In the process, the Bobcats leapfrogged two teams to avoid the single-elimination first round of the 2018 Sun Belt Conference Championship.
•    Texas State began the win streak at 11-14 in league play and sitting as the No. 8 seed. Conversely, Little Rock was 14-9 with six games to play and sitting atop.
•    The following notes highlight the unlikely course of events that unfolded to allow the Bobcats to jump the Trojans for the tournament's final free pass to the quarterfinals.
•    Texas State won back-to-back conference series for the first time since the first two weekends of league play in 2017.
•    The Bobcats won a series against Louisiana for just the second time in school history (first since 2004).
•    In doing so, they defeated the Ragin' Cajuns in back-to-back games for the first time in school history.
•    Entering the series, UL was 16-5 in its past 21 games, while TXST was 9-19 in its previous 28 outings.
•    Texas State then swept UTA for the first time since 2014 and for just the second time ever in Arlington (first since 2007).
•    The five game conference win streak to end the season was the first such streak since the beginning of SBC action in 2015.
•    Little Rock went on its first five-game conference losing streak since 2015. The Trojans also lost back-to-back series for the first time all year and suffered their first three-game series sweep all year.

ESTABLISHING NEW CAREER-HIGHS
    Below is a list of all Bobcat returners who have registered new single-game career highs in 2018.
•    Jacob Almendarez - 3 RBIs (Arkansas State)
•    Broc Bosse - 3.0 innings pitched (Baylor/Georgia State), 4 strikeouts (Coastal Carolina/Georgia State)
•    Cole Coffey - 2 runs scored (Stephen F. Austin)
•    Nicholas Fraze - 8 strikeouts (Appalachian State/Arkansas State)
•    Jaylen Hubbard - 2 doubles (Incarnate Word)
•    Jared Huber - 4 walks (Georgia State)
•    Zachary Leigh - 7.2 innings pitched and 8 strikeouts (Appalachian State)
•    Brandon Lewis - 8 strikeouts (McNeese State)
•    Braden Pearson - 4 strikeouts (Rice)
•    Derek Scheible - 2 home runs (UC Santa Barbara)

THE BOBCAT PITCHING STAFF
•    Texas State's pitching staff has been much improved from a season ago.
•    The team ERA through the regular season has dipped from 5.75 in 2017 to 4.28 this year.
•    TXST's pitchers have also conceded fewer runs (266-363), earned runs (230-319), hits (457-535), walks (230-300), doubles (85-101), triples (11-19), home runs (29-44), wild pitches (44-62), and balks (3-5) compared to this time last year.
•    Texas State has also upped its totals in strikeouts (381-357), saves (12-3), and wins (28-27).
•    The only numbers that favor 2017 are fewer hits-by-pitch (61-40).
•    The Bobcats lead the Sun Belt in fewest home runs allowed this year and also rank inside the top four in 12 pitching categories.

THE 2018 CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
•    The Sun Belt Conference conducted its baseball regular season with divisional play for the second-straight year.
•    Two divisions are comprised of six teams each, and divisional champions were awarded at the end of the year based on the winning percentage against all teams, regardless of division.
•    The 2018 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.
•    Ten teams qualified for the postseason event. 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.
•    The remainder of the tournament will be played under a double-elimination format.
•    The 2018 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship is set for May 22-27 at Russo Park on the campus of Louisiana.

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