SAN MARCOS, Texas – Freshmen shined both on the mound and at the plate Tuesday night for Texas State (6-2) in its 7-2 win over UTSA (7-1) in the I-35 Showdown at Bobcat Ballpark in front of 2,315 fans. It was the largest attendance for a game against the Roadrunners in program history.
 
Titan Targac (1-1) earned his first collegiate victory after throwing three innings with a career-high six strikeouts. Christian Okerholm (0-1) gave up four runs on four hits in the first 1.1 innings to take the loss.
 
Getting the start for the Bobcats was Sam Hall, who struck out four in two scoreless frames. Cade Smith also tossed two shutout innings out of the bullpen. Finishing the game was freshman Wade Cooper, who punched out four in his two innings of work.
 
Freshman Clayton Namken had a big day at the plate going 4-for-4 with two RBI and hit his first collegiate home run. Fellow classmates Jackson Cotton went 2-for-4 with a double and scored a run and Tanner Carson hit a two-run double.
 
Jaquae Stewart finished with two RBI and Manny Salas plated a run.
 
Texas State got on the scoreboard first with a two-run first that saw Salas bring in a run on a single. Stewart would make it 2-0 with a deep sacrifice fly to center field.
 
Carson led off the second by drawing a walk. Two batters later, Namken sent a 1-2 pitch the other way over the scoreboard to double the lead.
 
The score would remain the same until the fifth that saw Salas start the frame by drawing a free pass. With two outs, Chase Mora reached first via catcher's interference. A 1-1 pitch to Carson was smoked off the left field wall for a two-run double to increase the advantage to 6-0.
 
UTSA would get on the board when Drew Detlefsen started the sixth with a solo homer to left center. Lane Haworth followed with a double that resulted in TXST making a pitching change. Smith induced three ground outs to limit the damage by the visitors.
 
Stewart made it a six-run advantage again in the seventh with a 415-foot blast to center field for his second home run of the season.
 
The Roadrunners tallied the final run of the game in the next half inning when Haworth scored on a wild pitch.
 
Next up for the Bobcats travel to compete in the College Baseball Series in Cleburne, Texas that begins on Friday with a game against Abilene Christian.
 
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