2
Little Rock LR 16-17, 6-9 Sun Belt
3
Winner Texas State TXST 30-9, 13-3 Sun Belt
Little Rock LR
16-17, 6-9 Sun Belt
2
Final
3
Texas State TXST
30-9, 13-3 Sun Belt
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Little Rock LR 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 3 1
Texas State TXST 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 X 3 6 2

W: Wood, Zeke (4-1) L: Arnold, Hayden (4-4) S: Stivors, Tristan (9)

Zeke Wood - Little Rock
Liam Kissinger

Game Recap: Baseball | | Phillip Pongratz

Dominating Performance by Wood Friday Night

SAN MARCOS, Texas – For the second straight series opener Zeke Wood had a dominate performance on the mound. The right-hander allowed only a hit over 6.2 innings in Texas State's (30-9, 13-3 Sun Belt) 3-2 victory over Little Rock (16-17, 6-9 Sun Belt) at Bobcat Ballpark.
 
"Just Zeke throwing his fastball where he wanted to," said head coach Steven Trout. "The biggest key was keeping his pitch count down as he only walked three guys. He was filling up the strike zone with plus stuff."
 
The Paris, Texas native did not allow a hit until the seventh inning while striking out three to improve to 4-1. Tristan Stivors struck out three in the ninth to pick up his ninth save of the season. Suffering the loss was Hayden Arnold as he allowed two runs on five hits and walks while striking out seven in six innings.
 
Also seeing action on the mound for the Bobcats was Triston Dixon. He recorded a strikeout in 1.1 innings of work.
 
Both Cameron Gibbons and Dalton Shuffield were 2-for-4 at the plate. Gibbons finished with two singles while Shuffield recorded a double and triple. Plating a run apiece was Jose Gonzalez and Peyton Lewis.
 
A 2-2 offering in the bottom of the first landed just fair down the left field line off the bat of Shuffield. The senior shortstop hustled into third for his 11th career triple to tie the program record held by Terrence Moore (1998-00) and Evan Tierce (2001-04). Shuffield would score three pitches later when Gonzalez hit a deep sacrifice fly to left field.

 
Both starting pitchers put up zeros on the scoreboard for the next five innings. Gibbons led off the seventh with a single back up the middle. After a sacrifice bunt by Isaiah Ortega-Jones moved the senior second baseman into scoring position, he tagged up on a fly ball to left center. As Gibbons slide into third, the throw from the outfield hit him in the back and allowed him to score to put TXST ahead 2-0.

 
The Trojans got on the scoreboard in the next half inning behind two Bobcat errors to cut the lead in half.
 
After walks to Justin Thompson and Lewis in the bottom of the eighth, Lewis laced an RBI single to right to give the Bobcats a key insurance run.

 
Leading off the ninth, Noah Dickerson hit a home run to left center to make it a one-run contest. Following a walk drawn by Canyon McWilliams, Stivors struck out the next three batters to wrap up the victory.
 
The second game of the series is slated for a 2:30 p.m. start on Saturday. It is also Bark in the Park Day with fans allowed to bring their dogs to the ballpark.
 
For all things Texas State baseball, be sure to follow the team on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
 
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Scoring Summary

Score By Innings
Play LR TXST
TXST BOT 1st Gonzalez, J. flied out to lf, SF, RBI (1-1 KB); Shuffield, D scored. 0 1
TXST BOT 7th McClain, B. flied out to cf (3-2 BKBKB); Gibbons, C. advanced to third, scored on a throwing error by cf, unearned. 0 2
LR TOP 8th Figueroa,E singled to left field, RBI (1-1 BS); Lyons,N scored, unearned. 1 2
TXST BOT 8th Lewis, P. singled to right field, RBI (2-2 BBKF); Wuthrich, J. advanced to third; Thompson, J. scored. 1 3
LR TOP 9th Dickerson,N homered to left center, RBI (0-1 F). 2 3

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