Complete Bobcat Effort Dominates UTSA

by, Joshua Flanagan

SAN ANTONIO – Texas State put on a dominating performance for a 6-0 victory over I-35 Rival UTSA Tuesday night. The Bobcats faced just two more batters than the minimum in a nine-inning game, giving up just two hits in the shutout while answering with 12. Texas State notched back-to-back victories for the first time since April 5-6. With the impressive win, the Bobcats improve to 24-22 on the season.

Nobody has held UTSA to fewer hits this year than the two Texas State gave up Tuesday night. One might ask, “How could the Bobcats give up two hits, walk three and still face just two more than the minimum batters?” The defense made it happen with just one ball even reaching the outfield all night, and the Bobcats turned three double plays for just the second time this season.

It was Texas State’s first errorless game since April 22 at UL Lafayette. The chemistry between the pitching and the infield of Ryan Newman, Jonathan Ortega, Luke Sherley and Mickey Scott worked to perfection. The infield led the Bobcats to their most assists in an outing this season, finishing the game with 19, led by Sherley’s seven.

The Roadrunners could not find a way to crack the impressive pitching from Jeremy Hallonquist, Chase Hodson, Joe Powell andPasquale Mazzoccoli.

In addition to the strong defense and pinpoint pitching, the Bobcats were able to get the offense rolling a bit, scoring three runs combined in the first two innings and adding three more in the fourth. Both Tanner Hill and Sherley hit home runs in the game while Sherley finished with three RBIs. Hill’s home run keeps him on top of the Sun Belt Conference with 14 on the season.

Newman, Granger Studdard and Derek Scheible all tallied two hits in the game with six others striking for a hit. Newman continues to swing the bat well as of late, knocking his 13^th hit in the last six games.

Texas State will look to parlay Tuesday’s success into the weekend series at Bobcat Ballpark against Georgia State.

WHO STOOD OUT

Texas State Infield – Ryan Newman, Jonathan Ortega, Luke Sherley, Mickey Scott

The infield, teamed with the pitching, only let one ball get to the outfield all night, registering putouts and assists left and right. Early on, Sherley and Scott formed a wall on the left side, stopping 10 grounders. Ortega and Newman did the same on the right side, registering a combined 19 putouts and seven assists. As a group, the infield registered a season-high 19 assists and 22 putouts. They also added five hits, four RBIs and two runs.

Jeremy Hallonquist / RHP / R-Sr. / Hallsville, Texas

Hallonquist was able to get the Bobcats started on the right foot, retiring 10 consecutive batters to start the game. He threw five innings of one-hit ball, and did not give up a hit until the fourth inning. He struck out one, walked two and only allowed one hit to 16 batters faced, throwing 56 pitches.

SCORING RECAP

–       Top 1^st – Tanner Hill hit his 14^th home run of the season with two outs, a solo shot. (1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on base)

–       Top 2^nd – Derek Scheible hits a one-out single through the left side on a 1-2 count and goes to second base on a balk. With him on base, Luke Sherley turned on a pitch to knock it out of left field for the second home run of his career to put the Bobcats up, 3-0. (2 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base)

–       Top 4^th – Granger Studdard led off with a single through the right side, and Dylan Paul drew a four-pitch walk. Scheible moved them both over with a sacrifice bunt, and Sherley knocked in his third RBI of the game on a groundout to plate Studdard. After that, Mickey Scott shot a double down the third-base line to bring in Paul and put the Bobcats up, 5-0. Shortly after,Jonathan Ortega legged out a high infield bouncer to put runners at the corners. With that, the Bobcats executed the double steal to bring in Scott and go up, 6-0. (3 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 2 left on base)

NOTES

–       The first-inning home run from Tanner Hill was his 14^th of the season. Of his 14 home runs, 11 have been solo shots. It is the 37^th home run of the season for Texas State and puts Hill tied for 10^th in the country in home runs.

–       With Hill’s home run in the opening inning, the Bobcats now are 13-0 when scoring in the first inning and 20-6 when scoring first in the game.

–       In the top of the second, Luke Sherley hit the second home run of his career to give the Bobcats 38 home runs this season. His previous home run came Feb. 6 against Michigan State at the Kleberg College Classic in Corpus Christi. He is the seventh Bobcat with multiple home runs this season.

–       Hill and Sherley striking home runs marks the 12^th game of the season in which the Bobcats have hit multiple home runs in a single game.

–       Sherley’s home run made it nine for the Bobcats in three games against UTSA this year, averaging three homers per meeting.

–       In the fourth inning, Sherley drove in his third RBI of the night. That is the most RBIs in a game for Sherley this season and the fourth time this year he has tallied multiple RBIs. The last time he had more than one RBI in a game was April 15 against Little Rock.

–       The Bobcats turned a double play in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to give Texas State 36 double plays on the year. It is just the second time this season the Bobcats have turned three in a game. The last time Texas State had three double plays was against UL Monroe on March 13.

–       This is the 13^th multi-hit game of the season for Ryan Newman.

–       With two hits Tuesday, Granger Studdard now has three hits in the last two games and 16 multi-hit games.

–       Tuesday was the second multi-hit game of the season for Derek Scheible, knocking his last multi-hit game March 6 against Incarnate Word.

NEXT UP

The Bobcats return home to San Marcos to host Georgia State in a Sun Belt Conference series this weekend with games at 6 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday. After that, Texas State will prepare to hit the road for a series at Arkansas State.