Cowboys Claim Series Victory Over Texas State

The game was decided in the bottom of the second inning. We scored three and got runners on second and third with one out.

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State baseball team dropped a narrow 6-5 contest to Oklahoma State in the series finale Sunday afternoon at Bobcat Ballpark.

The Bobcats (1-2) outhit the reigning Big 12 Conference champions 11-9 and had more hits than their visiting counterparts in all three games of the opening weekend.

Leading the way in the last game of the series were seniors Derek Scheible and Dylan Paul, who both had two hits. Junior Jaylen Hubbard registered his first home run of the season, and senior Jared Huber scored twice.

OSU (2-1) squeezed on top in the first but the Bobcats countered a three-spot in the bottom of the second. The Cowboys moved ahead with a three-run home run in the third and did not trail again. The two sides exchanged individual tallies in the fourth, and Oklahoma State moved ahead 6-4 in the sixth. Texas State plated one in the eighth but could not take further advantage of a bases-loaded, no-out situation.

Junior Brandon Lewis (0-1) suffered the loss after conceding four runs on four hits in 2.2 innings. Sophomore Broc Bosse and juniors Brayden Theriot and Anthony Pagano all saw time on the mound.

Andrew Rosa paced Oklahoma State with a 3-for-4, 3-RBI effort. Matt Kroon went 2-for-3 and Colin Simpson hit a three-run homer.

Relief pitcher Joe Lienhard (1-0) earned the win after allowing one run on two hits in 1.2 innings. He struck out two and walked three. Starter Mitchell Stone was pulled after conceding three runs on six hits in the first 1.1 frames. Carson Teel earned the save after giving up one run across the final 2.0 innings.

Texas State heads out on the road for the first time of 2018 when the maroon and gold take on Rice at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 20 in Houston.

Score by Innings                    R  H  E

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Oklahoma State…… 103 101 000 –  6  9  0

Texas State……… 030 100 010 –  5 11  0

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Win – Lienhard, J. (1-0). Loss – Lewis, B. (0-1). Save – Teel, C. (1).

TEXAS STATE COACH TY HARRINGTON

Opening Statement…

“Our competitive spirit was in the right place. Our execution just wasn’t good in certain areas today. Both teams wanted to win. Everybody was involved in the game. Both teams got after each other really well. That was a great Sunday college baseball game. Both teams grinded trying to win. (Oklahoma State) is a good Big 12 team. I felt like we had opportunities to win, but it just didn’t turn out that way today.”

On the bullpen…

“I thought they were good. They gave us a chance to hold the game there where we could go out and score. They did a good job of pitching. The game was decided in the bottom of the second inning. We scored three and got runners on second and third with one out. We had a 3-0 count and weren’t able to score anybody. Then all the momentum changed in the third. We got the leadoff guy out but they end up with a three-run home run to take the lead. That’s how baseball works. It’s a hard-luck game to figure out sometimes. There’s a fine line between winning and losing. So many people like to focus on the last three outs of the game, but in reality today’s game was lost in the bottom of the second and the top of the third. A lot of things that could go wrong for us did. That’s something we have to address and try to make better.”