SAN MARCOS, Texas – Senior Connor Reich had a dominate performance on the mound as the Texas State baseball team defeated 24-ranked Missouri State 10-0 Sunday afternoon at Bobcat Ballpark. The right-hander tossed 6.2 shutout innings with seven strikeouts and retired the first 15 batters he faced before giving up his lone hit of the contest.
 
Reich earned the victory to improve to 1-0 on the season. It was also hits 10th career win since arriving at Texas State. Suffering the loss was the MSU's Alex Moore, who went 2.2 innings while allowing five runs on six hits and three walks.
 
With the win, the Bobcats conclude the Texas State Tournament with a 2-1 record while the Bears fall to 1-2.
 
The scoring started in the first when Ryan Newman doubled to right field to drive in a run and put two in scoring position. Skyler Valentine followed with a ground out to second that brought home John Wuthrich and increase the lead to 2-0.
 
Jacob Almendarez increased the advantage to three in the second when he hit a bloop single down the right field line the following inning.
 
Two more runs were added in the third. One run crossed the plate when Chase Evans flew out down the right field line and Newman was able to tag up and score. Felipe Rodriguez followed with a single to left field to plate a run.
 
Jaxon Williams singled to center with one gone in the fifth. He came around the score when Evans ripped a double to left center to make it a 6-0 advantage for TXST.
 
In the seventh, Skyler Valentine drew a walk to leadoff the frame and then stole second to move into scoring position. Williams drew another walk to put two runners. Following a pitching change, Evans
Laid down a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher to move both runners into scoring position.
 
Rodriguez then put down a perfect suicide bunt to plate Valentine and move Williams to third. After a walk drawn by Almendarez, Dalton Shuffield hit a chopper back to the pitcher, who overthrew the first baseman that allowed both Almendarez and Williams to score and make it a 9-0 lead.
 
The final run of the game came in the eighth when Evans hit a single back up the middle that drove in Wuthrich.
 
Finishing the game for Texas State were Kyle Bradford and Brent Hebert. Bradford threw a perfect 1.1 inning with a strikeout. Hebert gave up a hit in his scoreless inning of work that saw Riley King dive to make diving snag on a line drive hit back up the middle for the second out of the ninth.
 
At the plate, Evans finished 3-for-3 with three RBIs, one run score and a stolen base in his first-ever action as a Bobcat. Williams was the only other TXST player that had multiple hits with two. The Rosenberg, Texas native was one of three players to score two runs, along with Valentine and Wuthrich.
 
Next up for TXST is a home game against Baylor, which was ranked as high as 15 in the preseason polls, on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
 
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