Bobcats Open SBC Tourney vs. Troy

by, Joshua Flanagan

Texas State opens Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament play against Troy. The Bobcats, the fifth seed, will play Wednesday’s 4 p.m. game against fourth-seeded Troy. The winner will advance to play the winner between No. 1 UL Lafayette and No. 8 Arkansas State. The losers in those games will meet on Thursday as well.

Game Info: No. 5 Texas State at No. 4 Troy

Site: Bobcat Ballpark – San Marcos, Texas

Date: Wednesday, May 24

Time: 4 p.m.

Probable Pitching Matchup

RHP #21 Lucas Humpal (6-5, 2.95 ERA) vs. RHP #26 Grant Bennett (8-2, 2.15 ERA)

The Series                                                                                                  

Texas State and Troy have not played each other many times, but the Trojans have the edge, 5-4. However, the Bobcats won the most recent game, 4-1, to finish the series this year at the end of April. Head Coach Ty Harrington’s record is the same against Troy, 4-5.

Last Meeting

After dropping the first two games of this season’s series, the Bobcats bounced back with a 4-1 victory in the final meeting. Building an early 2-0 lead with runs in the first and second innings, Texas State scored in the seventh and eighth to close out the win. Cory Geisler knocked three hits while Tanner Hill and Ryan Newman added two apiece. On the mound, Jonathan Hennigan struck out seven.

On the Trojans

Troy finished the season strong to claim the fourth seed in the tournament. The Trojans won five of the team’s last six games of the regular season, including two against South Alabama, then leading the Sun Belt. Troy dropped the Jaguars to the second seed in the conference and capped the season with an 8-0 victory.

At the top of the offense is T.J. Binder, Joey Denison and Matt Sanders, hitting .317, .317 and .316 respectively. No other Trojan is hitting above .283. Denison leads the squad in hits with 65 while Brandon Lockridge has tallied 60. The team hasn’t knocked as many extra-base hits as the Bobcats with 90 doubles, nine triples and 25 home runs. For the season, Troy has 502 hits for 284 runs and 257 RBIs.

The Bobcats will likely face Grant Bennett, a pitcher in the running for an All-Conference nod at Tuesday’s awards ceremony. He has an ERA of just 2.15 with 74 strikeouts to 18 walks, only giving up 23 earned runs this season while allowing opponents a .263 batting average.

On the Bobcats

Texas State used a good balance of pitching and offense to take two games from UT Arlington this past weekend to clinch the fifth seed. Four of the team’s best pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts, a season high for Texas State, en route to a series-opening win. Then, Jonathan Hennigan threw six strikeouts and only allowed a single hit to start the series finale and lead the Bobcats to victory.

The bats popped too as Texas State added 11 hits on the final day. Derek Scheible hit two doubles in back-to-back games while Mickey Scott continues his hot streak with a hit in every game of the series. For the year, the Bobcats are batting .283 with 42 home runs, 13 triples and 98 doubles this season. Texas State has racked up 553 hits to score 310 runs with 273 RBIs.

Lucas Humpal will be on the mound for the Bobcats with his impressive 2.95 ERA, 84 strikeouts and 100.2 innings pitched this season.

A Look Ahead

The Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament is a double-elimination tournament. Texas State will advance to play the winner between No. 1 UL Lafayette and No. 8 Arkansas State with a victory, and the losers of those two games will also meet on Thursday. After that, there are a number of ways the tournament could go so continue to check the SBC Championships Central to follow the tournament.