Texas State Comes From Behind To Top Mavericks

“I’ve seen us play well,” said coach Ty Harrington. “I’ve seen us play great defense. I’ve seen us be great offensively, and I’ve seen us pitch at a high level. If we can put that all together then we’ll have a chance to make some noise in Statesboro.”

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State baseball team earned a 7-6 walk-off victory in 10 innings over University of Texas at Arlington in the final game of the regular season Saturday afternoon at Bobcat Ballpark.

The Bobcats (27-29, 13-17 SBC) registered their first series triumph since toppling ULM two games to one April 13-15, while the Mavericks (30-24, 20-10 SBC) are set to enter postseason play having lost five of their last six games.

Texas State has earned the No. 8 seed in the 2017 Sun Belt Conference Championship, and the team will face No. 9 seed Little Rock in a single-elimination contest at 5:30 p.m. May 23 in Statesboro, Georgia.

“We played really clean defense today,” said Coach Ty Harrington. “We had an assist at the plate. There were a lot of other factors in the game that I thought we did a great job with. Ultimately, we came up with the clutch hit in the end. Derek Scheible sat over there all day and took advantage of the opportunity to help us out. We were wanting, asking and hoping that we could get a series win this weekend to get some momentum heading into next week (SBC Championship). I think momentum is really important. We get to walk out of those gates feeling a little bit better about ourselves.”

The victor will move into the eight-team, double-elimination portion of the tournament.

Saturday’s triumph began on a sour note as the Mavericks took a 3-0 lead after three innings of play. The visitors tacked on an additional two insurance tallies in the top of the fifth, but the Bobcats erupted for five two-out runs in the home half of the frame to equalize at 5-5.

After two scoreless stanzas, UTA plated a go-ahead run in the eighth only to be foiled with a game-tying marker with two outs in the bottom of the ninth from Texas State.

The Mavericks were unable to score in the top of the 10th despite placing two runners on base, and the game-winning sequence began when junior Mickey Scott led off with a single.

“There were a couple of guys that came into the game who haven’t been out there in awhile,” said Harrington. “Zach Leigh and Shane Daughety hadn’t been out there in awhile. You can’t expect them to go out there and pitch perfect, but we couldn’t try to find that out next week when it may be a win or lose situation. It was important for us to get them out there. Once they got into the groove of the game, they threw the ball a little bit better. Shane was fine once he settled in. The same goes for Zach. This was one of the best weekends that Brayden Theriot has had since he’s been here. He threw the ball well.”He was sacrificed over to second and was brought home on

He was sacrificed over to second and was brought home on a RBI double from pinch-hitter Derek Scheible. The junior lashed a 2-0 count to straightaway center that narrowly cleared the head of a diving center fielder near the warning track.

The walk-off was his second of the season (Purdue) and seventh of the year for the Bobcats. TXST also has six victories this season when trailing after eight innings.

Texas State’s 3-7 hitters all had two hits, coming from Scott, juniors Travon Benton, Theodore Hoffman and Dylan Paul, and sophomore Jaylen Hubbard.

Hubbard scored twice, Paul registered three RBIs and Hoffman drove in a pair of teammates. He also scored the game-tying run on Paul’s single in the bottom of the ninth.

Sophomore Brayden Theriot (5-1) got the last out of the game to collect the victory, and he is now tied with junior Blake Walden and true freshman Nicholas Fraze for the team lead in that category.

Sophomore Wes Engle started on the mound and allowed three runs on four hits in 2.2 innings. Senior Brandon Courville threw 1.1 clean frames while sophomore Connor Reich and true freshman Shane Daughety also saw time on the mound. Fellow true freshman Zachary Leigh threw 1.2 innings of hitless ball.

UTA closer Daniel James (0-3), who entered the game in the top five in the nation in saves this season (13), recorded just his second blown save of the campaign to take the loss.

He was tagged for the final two runs on five hits in 1.1 innings. Starter Matt Michalski did not give up a run across the first three innings, and the Mavericks burned through four additional relief pitchers.

Noah Vaughan and R.J. Williams both went 3-for-5, with Vaughan recording three RBIs. Both Will Olson and Aaron Funk went 2-for-3, and Olson scored three times and Funk drove in two runs.

Omar Salinas was 8-for-10 with three home runs and seven runs scored in the first two games of the series, but he went 0-for-5 in Saturday’s losing effort.

Both teams had 12 hits, and neither club committed an error.

The maroon and gold were celebrating their Senior Day, and they honored Quinn Atwood, Brandon Courville and Joe Powell prior to first pitch. Managers Alec Sanchez and Will Grant were also recognized as part of the ceremony.

Score by Innings                      R  H  E

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UTA…………….. 012 020 010 0 –  6 12  0

Texas State……… 000 050 001 1 –  7 12  0

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Win – Theriot, B. (5-1). Loss – D. James (0-3). Save – None.