Saturday, May 7
Bobcats Take GSU Series with 10-1 Senior Day Victory
SAN MARCOS – Texas State used timely hitting on Saturday's Senior Day and strong pitching to secure the series against Georgia State with a 10-1 victory over the Panthers to improve to 26-22 on the season and 13-10 in the Sun Belt Conference. The Bobcats saw seniors Tanner Hill, Cory Geisler and Chase Hodson step up in a big way after Hill, Geisler, Lucas Humpal and Pasquale Mazzoccoli contributed in Friday's victory. Texas State will look for the sweep at 11 a.m. Sunday.
Texas State's timely hitting early hurt Georgia State. In both the first and third innings, the Bobcats scored two runs each inning with two outs. First, Tanner Hill kept the inning alive and Ryan Newman brought him home with his seventh homer of the year. Then, Cory Geisler kept the third inning alive with a two-out single that Hill followed with a double. Newman plated both of them with another two-out, two-RBI hit.
With a 4-1 lead, the Bobcats continued to lean on Georgia State, adding a run in the fourth off a Luke Sherley double and pummeling the Panthers with a five-run eighth inning.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Hennigan struck out eight, the most he's had since March 28 at Sam Houston State. He only gave up four hits and one earned run for his fourth win of the season. Chase Hodson struck out five with just one walk and two hits given up in four innings to earn his third save of the season.
Eagle Baseball Bests No. 22 South Alabama, 11-9, to Take The Series Win
MOBILE, ALA. – Georgia Southern Baseball secured a series win on Saturday night, taking an 11-9 win over No. 22 South Alabama. It marked the first time the first place Jaguars had dropped back-to-back games in league play. Ryan Cleveland's five-RBI day was punctuated by a third inning grand slam. The Eagles and Jaguars close the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. (CT)/2 p.m. (ET).
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Rodney Hennon
"Sometimes you've got to grind out a win and we did that today. We knew that we were going to be in for a battle all weekend. I'm proud of our guys, it wasn't how you draw it up, but we battled through some adversity and the guys hung in there. They continued to play hard and found a way to come out on top. But, the job's not done, we've still got one more to play tomorrow."
CRUCIAL MOMENTS
TOP 3RD – A pair of two out hits and a walk loaded the bases for Ryan Cleveland. The junior slugger tattooed a ball to right for his first collegiate grand slam. It was his 11th home run of the season, surpassing his 2015 total.
BOTTOM 3RD – The Jaguars got the bases loaded with one out in the third with a pair of walks. A sacrifice fly to center gave the home side its first run of the day. A single up the middle drove in two more to make it a 4-3 game.
TOP 5TH – Logan Baldwin got a two-out hit to center and scored four pitches later on Cleveland's double to the gap in right. He was just feet from his second home run of the day. The run extended the lead to 5-3.
TOP 6TH – An attempted sacrifice fly with one out was too short to score Cal Baker from third, but the USA left fielder muffed the catch, allowing the run to score. Later in the inning, a two-out infield single by Baldwin pushed Kent Rollins home to make it a 7-3 lead.
TOP 7TH – The Jaguars kicked the ball around in the seventh, allowing a run to score when the inning should have been over. It extended the lead to 8-3.
BOTTOM 7TH – South Alabama answered in the bottom of the seventh, moving a leadoff single around to third base. A bleeder to right drove in the run to cut the lead to 8-4. The Jags loaded the bases, but a ground ball to short ended the frame.
BOTTOM 8TH – South Alabama cut three runs off the Eagle lead in the eighth with a pair of walks and a three-run home run to right by Danny Martinez.
TOP 9TH – A leadoff walk and a single by Wren opened the door for Cal Baker to drive in two while Matt Anderson drove in one more to push the lead to 13-7.
BOTTOM 9TH – The Jaguars loaded the bases with two walks and a double, ultimately driving one in with a single to center. The third walk of the inning pushed in the Jaguars 9th run of the game.
NOTES
- Eagle pitches walked a season-high 14 batters on Saturday night, but it was Ryan Frederick that took the win, his first of the year with four innings of shutout relief.
- All nine Eagle batters tallied hits while five scored multiple hits including three from Jordan Wren.
UP NEXT
Georgia Southern and South Alabama close out the three-game set on Sunday with a 1 p.m. (CT)/2 p.m. (ET) series finale. The Eagles will go for the sweep with Adam Kelly going to the mound.
Herrera’s Pitching and Hitting Carries ULM at Troy
TROY, Ala. – Anthony Herrera picked up his eighth save after three shutout innings and roped a late two-run double as ULM defeated Troy 6-2 on Saturday afternoon, evening the series.
Herrera’s insurance knock to the left center field wall gave ULM a 5-2 lead going into the stretch. He allowed two hits on the mound and pitched a perfect ninth inning.
ULM (18-30, 8-15 SBC) put up a crooked number in the top of the fourth while taking a 3-1 lead in the process. Nathan Pugh’s single was just high enough to evade a leaping second baseman, and Stockton doubled to the gap just past a diving right fielder. Cade Stone’s RBI groundout gave ULM the lead, and Danny Springer followed with a double down the left field line as he slid in ahead of the tag.
Back-to-back singles with one out in the bottom of the first gave Troy (27-20, 12-11 SBC) an early 1-0 lead.
The second inning saw Jacob Stockton lead off with a first-pitch rocket just outside of the left field foul pole. He followed up moments later with a solo home run to straightaway left field, tying the game.
Stockton hustled for an eighth-inning, leadoff double, never slowing down as his base hit fell into center field and sliding in just ahead of the throw. ULM would strand two in scoring position, however.
ULM padded its lead in the ninth when Nathan Reynolds pounded a ground-rule double and came around to score on Pugh's two-bagger to left center.
Keller Bradford relieved starter Brayden Bouchey and needed just three pitches to get a fifth inning-ending double play. He threw 2 2/3 scoreless frames Friday night.
Bouchey (5-2) scattered five hits over 5 1/3 innings and gave up two runs.
Turner, Rohrbaugh set records as Mavs blast Trojans
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Colton Turner tied a school record with eight RBI and Quintin Rohrbaugh set a new school mark with six runs scored as the UT Arlington Mavericks rolled to a 21-8 win over Little Rock to even the series on Saturday at Gary Hogan Field.
"The most important thing was that we won. We needed a win, badly," coach Darin Thomas said. "The effort has been there, but this should allevitate some self-doubt. But we have to remember its only one win. We are playing a very good team in an offensive park and have our work cut out for us to win a series tomorrow.
Turner was the lead offensive star of the day, pacing a 20-hit attack with a 5-for-5 day that included three doubles and a career-best eight RBI that made him the fourth Mav in school history to reach that mark in a single game.
He was not the only Maverick (24-24, 10-13 SBC) to put together a record-setting day with Rohrbaugh finishing with his second five-hit game of the season. The junior outfielder set a new school record with six runs scored and finished with three two-baggers himself.
Josh Minjarez drove in a career-best five runs, capping his two-hit day with a grand slam in the ninth inning. Darien McLemore scored four times as well, finishing 3-for-5 with three RBI.
In all, eight Mavericks picked up at least RBI with every starter reaching base at least once.
That was more than enough for UTA starter Joel Kuhnel who surrendered a two-run homer to Ryan Scott just two batters into the game, but responded by keeping the Trojans (23-21, 14-9 SBC) off the board in each of the next six innings before Scott took him deep again in the seventh with another two-run bomb. The UTA righty moved to 5-3 on the year with the win, striking out three with 10 hits allowed for the day.
Cory Malcolm was the losing pitcher for Little Rock, allowing eight runs on seven hits in just 3.2 innings to fall to 4-4 for the season.
It took Little Rock only two batters to spot itself a 2-0 lead on Ryan Scott’s 10th home run of the season in the bottom of the first. UTA quickly cut the lead in half in the top of the second on an RBI single from Turner, scoring Rohrbaugh who had doubled to left field with one out in the inning.
Kuhnel worked out of jams in both the second and third and the UTA offense rewarded him with an 11-run explosion in the top of the fourth. The Mavs sent 16 hitters to the plate in the inning and had nine straight hitters reach base with two outs. Darien McLemore singled from both sides of the plate in the inning and Turner drove in three of the 11 runs with a double and a single.
It was the most runs in an inning for Mavs since they scored 13 in the eighth inning against Northwood on April 21, 2009.
Turner drove in Rohrbaugh again in the sixth with an RBI double into the left-field corner to up the lead to 13-2 and Kuhnel responded with consecutive 1-2-3 innings in both the fifth and sixth before Scott touched him up again with a two-run homer to right field in the bottom of the seventh to trim the lead to 13-4.
He struck again two innings later after a walk to McLemore and Rohrbaugh’s third double of the day, just missing a homer with a double off the top of the left-center field fence that scored two more.
Little Rock managed to scored four times in the bottom of the eighth, but the Mavs responded with six scores in the top of the ninth, ending in Minjarez’s grand slam off of reliever Jacob Rateliff.
UTA will try and take the series from the Trojans on Sunday with a 1 p.m. first pitch scheduled. Jake Wilcox will get the start for the Mavericks.
Northwestern State Downs A-State Baseball 6-3
JONESBORO, Ark. (5/7/16) – Matt Burgess hit a home run and drove in three runs but it was not enough as the Arkansas State baseball team fell to Northwestern State 6-3 Saturday night at Tomlinson Stadium.
A-State (20-25) trailed 6-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but put together a 1-out rally when Garrett Rucker reached on error by the Demon’s first baseman. Rucker then stole second and Burgess followed with a line shot over the right field fence to cut the deficit to 6-2.
Burgess delivered again in the eighth inning with an RBI single that brought the Red Wolves’ within 6-3 with one out in the inning, but A-State failed to continue the threat and left a pair of runners on base when the inning came to a close.
A-State had a scoring chance in the first inning after Joe Schrimpf and Garrett Rucker each produced 2-out singles to put runners on the corners, but inning came to a close when Matt Burgess grounded out to end the threat. Tim Seldomridge led off the game with a single and then stole second, but was later picked off before Schrimpf’s single to also end a scoring opportunity at the time.
Seldomridge finished the game with a pair of hits and stole a base
Coulton Lee worked out of a bases loaded jam in the second inning after issuing a pair of singles and hitting a batter to load the bases with two outs, but Garrett Huff saved the inning from any damage with a diving catch in left field to end the inning and keep the Demons off the scoreboard.
Northwestern State (27-18) scratched across a run in the third inning when Cort Brinson drove in Nick Heath on a sacrifice fly to right field to plate the first run of the game. They added to their lead with three runs in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Bret Underwood and a 2-run single by Heath that cleared the bases.
The Demons scored two runs in the sixth inning after Tanner Kirby entered the game in relief on Lee and threw a wild pitch to the first batter he faced that allowed Kelsey Richard to score. He later surrendered an RBI double to Underwood to push the lead to 6-0.
The series continues Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Tomlinson Stadium. The game can be heard locally on 95.3FM The Ticket and online at AStateRedWolves.com.
Gorham Throws Gem For App in Game Two vs. UL Lafayette
LAFAYETTE, La. — One day after being shut out, Appalachian State University baseball rebounded for a huge game-two victory over No. 19 UL Lafayette on Saturday night at Tigue Moore Field. The Mountaineers (15-32, 9-17 Sun Belt) scored four runs in a big seventh inning en route to a 6-1 win over the Ragin’ Cajuns (30-17, 15-8).
Breydan Gorham (3-4) put the Mountaineers on his back and lead them to the series-leveling win. Gorham threw seven scoreless innings before being charged with the Cajuns lone run in the eighth. The true freshman threw a season-high 105 pitches and struck out four ULL batters while only allowing six hits.
Over his last two starts, Gorham is 2-0 with 14 innings pitched, two runs, five walks and eight strikeouts. Reed Howell sealed the victory coming into the game in the eighth inning and allowed no hits over the final two frames.
The Apps got started quickly, plating a run in the first inning. Matt Vernon hit a one-out double and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Brian Bauk knocked Vernon home on an RBI ground out. App State added a second run in the fifth inning when Jason Curtis brought Colin Schmid home with an RBI double to left field.
The Mountaineers broke the game open in the top of the seventh with four runs on three hits and one Cajun error. With Conner Leonard on second base, Chandler Seagle singled to right field. On the throw back into the infield, the ball took a fortune bounce for the Apps off Seagle’s bat and allowed Leonard to score from third.
Curtis, the next batter up, was hit by a pitch putting two runners on base for Vernon. Vernon delivered with a two-run triple to put Appalachian up 5-0. Vernon scored the Apps’ sixth and final run on a past ball when a curveball got a away from the ULL catcher.
The win over the No. 19 ranked Ragin’ Cajuns was App State’s third of the season, seventh in four seasons under head coach Billy Jones, and 12th since 2011 over ranked opponents. This season is the second time in four seasons under Jones that the Mountaineers have won three games over ranked teams. The Apps also did so in 2013. Prior to 2011, App State had not defeated a ranked opponent in 29 seasons.
The Mountaineers will look to win their second-straight Sun Belt series tomorrow in the rubber match. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. ET.