SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State baseball team hits the road for a three-game Sun Belt Conference series against Louisiana. All three games will be played at Russo Park.
 
Friday's game will begin at 6:30 p.m. Saturday will see first pitch at 4 p.m. and the series finale on Sunday is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
 
Entering the weekend, the Bobcats are 28-13 overall having won seven straight and sport a 12-6 mark in conference play. The Ragin' Cajuns come in 20-24 on the season and 8-10 against Sun Belt opponents.
 
A video stream and live stats will be available for all three games. Friday's game will be broadcast on Cox Sports TV and can be streamed on ESPN+. Saturday's and Sunday's contests will be both be streamed through UL's athletic website. Bill Culhane and Brant Freeman will have the radio call for the series on KTSW 89.9 FM.
 
Probable Starting Pitchers
Friday: TXST RHP Nicholas Fraze (6-3, 4.65 ERA) vs. UL RHP Brandon Young (2-4, 4.04 ERA)
Saturday: TXST RHP Hunter McMahon (4-4, 4.83 ERA) vs. UL RHP Jack Burk (1-1, 3.58 ERA)
Sunday: TXST RHP Connor Reich (5-1, 2.94 ERA) vs. UL TBA
 
Scouting Texas State
The past two games has seen Texas State win on walk-off hits with the most recent being a two-RBI single by Skyler Valentine to defeat Texas. The Bobcats enter the weekend 10-5 in true road games with a 5-4 mark against Sun Belt foes.
 
Jaxon Williams comes in leading TXST with a .350 batting average, 56 hits and 48 runs scored. He has also hit four home runs, driven in 22 runs and drawn 32 walks.
 
Both Jaylen Hubbard (.323) and Dalton Shuffield (.333) have 53 hits. Shuffield is a perfect 8-for-8 stealing bases and has laid down four sacrifice bunts. Hubbard is tied for the team lead with five home runs with Will Hollis, John Wuthrich and Valentine.
 
Hollis paces the team with 33 RBIs, 35 walks and 12 doubles while batting .321. Both Valentine and Wuthrich have plated 30 runs apiece. Travon Benton (.310) is the sixth Bobcat to come in hitting better than .300.
 
This weekend's rotation will see Nicholas Fraze start on Friday. Hunter McMahon moves back into the Saturday start after being starting the series opener the past two weekends. Connor Reich is slated to take the mound to conclude the series.
 
Scouting Louisiana
Louisiana enters having lost four straight and seven of its last 10. Last weekend saw the Ragin' Cajuns get swept on the road at UTA and they fell 7-6 on Tuesday at Southern Miss on a walk-off double. At home, UL is 13-12 with a 5-4 mark against conference opponents with series victories over Arkansas State and South Alabama.
 
Todd Lott leads the team with a .323 batting average. He also has 26 RBIs, 21 runs scored, 11 stolen bases, six sacrifice flies and five home runs.
 
Hayden Cantrelle has a team-high 54 hits on his way to bat .321. He is also 26-for-30 stealing bases and has scored 40 runs, both pacing the squad. The sophomore infielder has smashed eight homers, driven in 24 runs and been plunked 11 times.
 
Orynn Veillion is 11-for-12 stealing bags and has hit nine home runs. Brennan Breaux and Hunter Kasuls have stolen nine and eight s bases, respectively.
 
Hitting a UL best 11 home and 10 doubles while scoring 32 times and plating 28 is Handsome Monica.
 
Scheduled to take the hill on Friday is Brandon Young, who is 2-4 with two saves, a 4.04 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 35.2 innings. Jack Burk is slated to start on Saturday. The junior right-hander is 1-1 with one save, 3.58 ERA and 19 strikeouts over 27.2 innings in nine games, including four starts. Sunday's start is still to be announced.
 
In the bullpen, Jacob Schultz has made a team-high 17 appearances that includes seven starts. He is 1-2 with a 3.86 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 53.2 innings.
 
Making a team best 16 relief appearances has been Connor Cooke. He sports a 3-0 record, 6.28 ERA and has struck out 20 in 28.2 innings.
 
Gunner Leger, a 2017 All-American and coming off Tommy John surgery in 2018, enters the weekend with a 1-3 record, two saves and 2.67 ERA. The senior left-hander has struck out 30 and walked nine in 27 innings spanning nine games with four starts.
 
All-Time Series
Louisiana leads the all-time series 22-13 over Texas State. Last season saw the Bobcats win three of the four meetings. They took the final two games of the series in San Marcos and capped off the year by eliminate the Ragin' Cajuns from the Sun Belt Championship that was being played in Lafayette.
 
When playing UL on the road, TXST is 5-12 all-time. All four three-game series played in the Pelican State has seen the Bobcats win one game each series.
 
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