SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State heads up I-35 to compete in the Karbach Round Rock Classic this weekend. The Bobcats will take on Kansas (Fri.), Kentucky (Sat.) and Washington State (Sun.) from Dell Diamond, home of the Texas Rangers Triple-A affiliate Round Rock Express.
 
Friday's game will be a 6 p.m. first pitch while contests on Saturday and Sunday will both begin at 4 p.m.
 
All the games of the classic will be streamed on D1Baseball.com. A subscription is needed to view the contests.
 
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHER
Friday: TXST RHP Austin Eaton (1-0, 0.00 ERA vs. KU RHP Reese Dutton (0-1, 9.00 ERA)
Saturday: TXST LHP Jack Stroud (1-0, 0.00 ERA vs. UK LHP Dominic Niman (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Sunday: TXST RHP Peyton Zabel (1-0, 2.25 ERA) vs. WSU LHP Spencer Jones (0-1, 6.75 ERA)
 
ABOUT TEXAS STATE
Tuesday night saw TXST suffer its first loss of the season at No. 5 TCU. Falling behind 5-0 after three innings, the Bobcats twice cut the deficit to a run but were unable to complete the comeback. This weekend will be the first time Texas State has played at Dell Diamond since facing Baylor on Feb. 22, 2012.
 
Ryne Farber is off to a hot start offensive in his collegiate career. The freshman is batting .750 (9-for-12), which ranks fourth nationally, and also leads the team with seven runs, five walks and three doubles. Aaron Lugo comes in batting .500 with two home runs, his second being and inside-the-parker, and four RBI. Also with two homers and four RBI on the year is Cameron Thompson.
 
First baseman Alec Patino comes in batting .417 with four runs scored and has driven in four. Leading the team with five RBI is Cade Manning.
 
The starting rotation from opening weekend remains the same as Austin Eaton (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 4 K) takes the mound on Friday. Following him will be Jack Stroud (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 3 K) and Peyton Zabel (1-0, 2.25 ERA, 6 K) on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
 
Both Rhett McCaffety and Otto Wofford have made a team-high two relief appearances. Both have a 0.00 ERA with McCaffety striking out a bullpen best five batters. Overall, the Bobcat bullpen has allowed five runs with just three of them being earned in 18.2 innings.
 
ABOUT KANSAS
The Jayhawks are 2-2 on the year and come in having won their last two games, both of which took place in Corpus Christi, Texas. They claimed the series finale against UIC and won Tuesday night versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
Kodey Shojinaga leads the team with a .500 average (9-for-18) with three home runs, eight RBI, six runs and two doubles. Jake English enters batting .444 with three homers, seven RBI and seven runs scored. Also with two round trippers is Ben Hartl (6 RBI).
 
Friday night will see Reese Dutton get the ball. The senior right-hander gave up three runs on four hits and two walks while striking out three in three innings in the season opening loss to the Flames.
 
SERIES VS. THE JAYHAWKS
The all-time series between Kansas and Texas State is tied 1-1. Both previous meetings have taken place at a neutral site with the most recent coming at Dell Diamond and seeing the Jayhawks win 9-3 on Feb. 10, 2001. The first matchup was in Houston on Feb. 26, 1995 that the Bobcats won 8-6.
 
ABOUT KENTUCKY
Kentucky comes into the classic 4-0 after sweeping USC Upstate and claiming their home opener on Tuesday against Morehead State. Coming off a Super Regional appearance, the Wildcats were picked to finish fifth in the SEC West.
 
Ty Crittenberger is hitting a team best .500 while smacking one of the squad's four home runs. Nick Lopez (.455 AVG) leads the team with three doubles. Grant Smith and Ryan Nicholson pace UK with six and four RBI, respectively. As a team, the Wildcats are 14-for-14 stealing bases with eight guys having swiped at least one bag.
 
Projected to start on Saturday is left-hander Dominic Niman. In his first start, he struck out six in five scoreless innings to earn the win.
 
SERIES VS. THE WILDCATS
Saturday's game will be the first-ever between Texas State and Kentucky. It will be the first time the Bobcats have faced a current SEC member not from the state of Texas since 2011 when they played both Arkansas and Missouri.
 
ABOUT WASHINGTON STATE
Washington State is coming off a 3-1 weekend at Utah Tech. Picked last in the 11-team Pac-12 Conference, the Cougars won't play their first home game until Mar. 1 against Rhode Island.
 
Jacob Morrow is batting a team-high .625 with one home run. The trio of Alan Shibley (.471), Nate Swarts (.429) and Casen Taggart (.500) have hit two homers apiece and are batting over .400 on the young season. A team-high six runs have been driven in by Cole Cramer.
 
Spencer Jones gets the call to the rubber on Sunday. The lefty is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA and four strikeouts over 5.1 innings. Of his five hits allowed, three have gone for extra-bases with two homers and one double.
 
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