Texas State Baseball Downs UTA

{fshare id=4904}

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State poured in six runs in the fifth inning to help send the Bobcats past UT Arlington 10-5 on Friday night in Sun Belt Conference opener for both programs.

The Mavericks fell to 5-12 overall, having lost two consecutive games. Texas State improved to 11-6 with the win. The teams meet on Saturday at 3 p.m. for the second of the three-game series.

“We are having a hard time getting a hit when it matters and getting out of a situation defensively,” UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said. “We aren’t catching any breaks. A lot of those we control ourselves and we have to make our own breaks.”

Texas State loaded the bases with no outs to begin the fifth and after five hits and two walks, the Bobcats broke open what was a 1-1 ballgame.

UTA starter Jess Amedee (1-3) was responsible for seven earned runs through

4.2 innings. Amedee struck out four before giving way to Chad Nack in the fifth.

Greg McCall provided UTA with its first-ever SBC hit in the second inning. McCall put a charge into his second pitch to send it over the left-field wall to give the Mavericks a 1-0 lead.

Texas State responded right back in the bottom half with a homer of its own to tie the game.

Following five consecutive scoreless innings, Darien McLemore hit his first-career homer in the eighth to follow up a pinch-hit double by Jackson Morris.

The scoring continued with two outs at the expense of the Bobcats’ second baseman. McCall’s towering fly ball with two outs bounced off of the second baseman’s glove to score two UTA runs.

The Bobcats would put the game away though in the eighth with three runs.

“We are one hit away from tying it up and we can’t give up three runs after we get within two,” Thomas said. “But that is how we are playing right now. We’re just not playing very well right now.”