COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas State baseball team (37-25) saw its season come to an end on Sunday with a 15-4 loss to USC (45-16) in the College Station Regional from Blue Bell Park.
Picking up the win on the mound was Sax Matson (2-2) as he tossed 3.2 scoreless innings of relief with four strikeouts.
Cade Smith (4-3) took the loss after surrendering four runs on four hits in his one inning of action.
Eight Bobcat hurlers saw action out of the bullpen with the most innings being two tossed by
Wade Cooper and
Alizaeh Gutierrez. Both recorded two strikeouts in their outings.
Keller Eberly and
Sam Hall threw an inning apiece with all three of Hall's outs coming via punch outs.
At the plate,
Clayton Namken was 2-for-3 with a double.
Coy DeFury drove in two runs while
Manny Salas and
Justin Vossos plated a run and recorded a base knock apiece. Also finishing with a hit on the afternoon was
Brady Boles,
Chase Mora and
Jaquae Stewart.
The Trojans would strike first in the opening frame with a grand slam off the bat of Kevin Takeuchi.
In the bottom of the frame, Jaquae appeared to have cut the deficit in half as he smashed the ball over the wall down the right field line. However, the umpires ruled the ball to be foul and the junior had to settle for a walk. A pop up would end the frame with two Bobcats left on base.
USC added to its lead with two-run homer from Isaac Cadena in the third. Two more runs would be added by the team in the fourth to go up 8-0.
Mora led off the bottom of the fourth with a double to left center. It was the 53rd two-bagger of his career to tie the program record held by Dalton Shuffield. A 1-2 offering to DeFury was smashed into the bleachers in right field for his first homer of the season and put TXST on the scoreboard.
DeFury's long ball was also the 116th of the season for Texas State. The total surpassed the Sun Belt Conference mark that had previously been held since 2004 by New Mexico State.
Following a pitching change,
Brady Boles singled back up the middle and
Jackson Cotton drew a walk. A 1-1 pitch to Salas was sent through the right side of the infield for an RBI single. Namken worked a free pass to load the bases. Stewart worked a full count and appeared to draw another walk but was called out on strikes on a low pitch.
Justin Vossos did bring in a run via a free pass to cut the deficit to 8-4.
The Trojans would put up a run in the sixth when a pitch bounced in front of the plate and hit Namken in the face mask. The ball bounced down into the top of his chest proctor and he quickly pulled the ball loose. However, the umpires called it a dead ball and awarded the runner on third a base to bring him home to make it a 9-4 contest.
USC tacked on two more runs in the seventh and four in the eighth to put the game away.
Titan Targac and Braylin Timmins combined to work a scoreless ninth with Timmins inducing a pop up to Ausitn Munguia in foul territory for the final out.
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