HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The 2024 baseball season for Texas State concluded on Saturday with a 5-3 setback to Southern Miss at Pete Taylor Park.
 
The Bobcats ended their campaign 27-29 and 13-17 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Golden Eagles head into the conference tournament as the No. 2 seed with a record of 37-18 and 20-10 in league play.
 
Daylan Pena led TXST with a 2-for-2 day at the plate and drove in a run. August Ramirez hit a solo home run and Alec Patino recorded a double for the team's lone extra base hits of the afternoon. Also driving in a run was Cade Manning.
 
Matching his career-high with three walks on the day was Kameron Weil.
 
Taking the loss was Rhett McCaffety (3-1) after he allowed two runs in an inning of work while striking out three. Kros Sivley (4-5) picked up the win with four shutout innings of relief and three strikeouts while Colby Allen earned his sixth save of the season after getting the final three outs of the contest.
 
On short rest, Tony Robie thew the first 3.2 innings with two strikeouts while giving up an unearned run on three hits. Austin Eaton worked 2.1 innings out of the bullpen with two strikeouts, Jonathan Martinez retired two batters with two via a punch out and Taylor Seay got the lone batter he faced out.
 
Patino led off the second with a double to the right center gap and he would advance to third on a wild pitch. Following a walk to Powell, a flair shot off the bat of Pena to center plated Patino for the first run of the game while also forcing a USM pitching change.
 
The Eagles tied the game with a run in the third that was aided by a Bobcat error.
 
Ramirez answered back for TXST with a 417.5-foot solo shot over the centerfield wall for his 10th home run of the season in the top of the fourth.
 
USM would take the lead 3-2 in the fifth as a Texas State throwing error extended the frame. The hosts would tack on insurance runs in the seventh and eighth innings.
 
With two outs in the ninth, Daylan Pena beat out an infield single to the third baseman and advanced to second as the throw was wild. Alex Gonzales came on as a pinch runner and scored when Manning laced a single to right. A walk to Kameron Weil brought up Chase Mora as the go-ahead runner. However, he was induced into a pop up into foul territory to end the game and the season for the Bobcats.
 
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