SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State baseball team concluded its home slate on Saturday against Georgia State that saw the Panthers claim a 7-5 victory. Prior to the contest, the team honored its 10 seniors (
Bryce Bonner,
Cole Coffey,
Wes Engle,
Chase Evans,
Johnny Gonzales,
Garrett Herrmann,
Will Hollis,
Zachary Leigh,
Tucker Redden and
Jaxon Williams) along with
Brent Hebert from the 2020 squad.
With the loss, TXST drops to 21-31 overall and 9-12 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Panthers are now 15-35 on the season with a 10-11 mark in conference play.
Returning to action on the mound was
Garrett Herrmann (4-2). The senior took the loss after giving up two runs on three hits. Duncan Lutz (1-2) picked up the win with 2.2 scoreless innings of relief. Earning his first save of the season was Seth Lutz as he did not surrender a run in 2.2 innings and struck out three.
Both
Tristan Stivors and
Otto Wofford pitched three innings out of the pen. The duo combined for 10 strikeouts that included a near immaculate inning from Wofford in the seven as he struck out the side on 10 pitches.
Both
Bryce Bonner and
Tucker Redden recorded two hits on the day.
Cole Coffey hit his team leading ninth home run of the season and drove in three runs.
GSU struck first with two runs in the first and three more in the second. It added another run in the fourth to take a 6-0 lead.
In the bottom half of the fourth,
Dalton Shuffield led off by hitting by hitting a dribbler that died along the third base line for a single. After Bonner was plunked,
Chase Evans laid down a sacrifice bunt to put two in scoring position. A 2-1 pitch to Coffey saw the senior first baseman go the opposite way for a three-run homer to cut the deficit in half.
Redden followed with a single back up the middle after the Panthers made a pitching change. He moved to second on a wild pitch and then tagged up to reach third on a fly out.
John Wuthrich would hit a short chopper towards third that was fielded by the pitcher, who made no throw to allow Redden to score.
Following a walk drawn by
Will Hollis,
Justin Thompson singled through the right side to plate to cut the deficit to 6-5.
Both teams were held scoreless for the next three innings despite the Bobcats getting two runners on in both the fifth and seventh innings. GSU added an insurance run in the eighth on a throwing error that forced Coffey to leap to catch the throw to first. Video replay on the ESPN+ broadcast showed he was able to swipe and tag the batter on the back before he hit the bag but was missed by the umpire.
Texas State was able to get the tying run on base in the ninth as Shuffield was walked to start the frame and Coffey was plunked. However, Lutz was able to induce a game-ending fly out.
Next up for the Bobcats is the final non-conference game of the regular season on Tuesday, May 18 at TCU. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and will be streamed on Big XII Now/ESPN+.
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