SAN MARCOS, Texas – No. 9 Texas State (19-4, 4-0 Sun Belt) came from behind late to defeat Coastal Carolina (12-8-1, 1-2-1 Sun Belt) 7-4 in the series opener Friday night at Bobcat Ballpark. The win snapped a seven-game winless streak to the Chanticleers.
 
Triston Dixon (3-0) pitched three innings out of the bullpen and struck out three to earn the win. Tristan Stivors threw two scoreless frames with two strikeouts to earn his sixth save of the season and 15th of his career. Take the loss was Matt Joyce (4-1) as he surrendered two runs in 1.1 innings.
 
Starting on the rubber for the Bobcats was Zeke Wood. The right-hander threw four no-hit innings and struck out five. He did allow a run behind five walks.
 
Ben McClain, Daylan Pena, Dalton Shuffield and John Wuthrich all had two hits on the night. McClain scored three runs and drove in three. Pena plated two runs and both he and Shuffield scored a run.
 
McClain led off the bottom of the first with a solo home run to right field to give TXST an early 1-0 advantage. It grew to three runs two innings later when Pena sent a 2-1 offering over the right center wall for his third homer of the season.
 
CCU got on the scoreboard in the fifth on an RBI ground out. A three-run round tripper from Matt McDermott put the Chanticleers up 4-3 after the top of the seventh.
 
In the bottom half of the frame, Wesley Faison reached on a fielder's choice. Peyton Lewis followed with a single down the right field line to put runners on the corners. Two batters later, McClain doubled off the right field wall to bring home both runners. He would score two pitches later on a single off the bat of Wuthrich to give TXST a 6-4 lead.
 
A single to right center by Dale Thomas was immediately followed by a hot shot off the bat of Tyler Johnson to Cameron Gibbons. He bobbled the ball but was able to get the Chanticleer at first. Thomas advanced to third as Pena's throw to the base was off-line and the ball hit off Thomas' feet. The ball bounced towards TXST's dugout and saw Thompson race over and make a perfect off-balance throw to the plate to Lewis to tag Thomas out to end the frame that kept CCU off the scoreboard.

M8 |??

TXST 6, CCU 4#EatEmUp | @jt_thompo @peytonlewis7 pic.twitter.com/jjCb5efR1o

— Texas State Baseball (@TxStateBaseball) March 26, 2022

 
Shuffield smacked a 2-2 pitch to right center to start the next half inning for a triple, the ninth of his to tie for ninth in program history. He would trot home on a deep sacrifice fly by Thompson to give the Bobcats an insurance run.
 
Back-to-back strikeouts for Stivors was followed by a lineout to Pena to close out the game.
 
The second game of the series takes place on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Bobcat Ballpark.
 
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