Texas State Forces Rematch with UT Arlington after 5-4 Win
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Texas State catcher Andrew Stumph hit the game-winning single in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead the Bobcats to a 5-4 victory over UT Arlington. With the win, Texas State forced a second game against the Mavericks to determine who will play Lamar Saturday in the championship game of the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament.
The Bobcats started to get to UTA starter Brian Watson in the seventh inning getting a run across the plate and make it a 4-3 game, but the Maverick senior returned face Texas State in the eighth.
Bret Atwood got a lead-off single before Watson coaxed a groundout, but with a runner now in scoring position, that sent Watson, who was making just his first career start, to the dugout. He was replaced by lefty Calan Pritchard, who walked Kyle Livingstone before Jason Martinson singled through the left side to score Atwood and tie the game. UTA skipper Darin Thomas then brought right hander Garrett Laird out of the bullpen.
Laird got Shaun Garcia to strike out for the second out of the inning, but Stumph drove a 1-0 offering to center and that scored Livingstone from second. Laird then got a ground out to escape without further damage.
In the top of the ninth, Jesse Payne led off with an infield single, but Carson Smith, who came on to pitch in the seventh, got the next two batters - Jordan Vaughn and Michael Choice - to look at strike three. He then got Preston Beck to line out to left field to pick up his 10th win of the season and extend the Bobcats' hopes at an NCAA tournament berth.
Livingstone and Stumph each had two hits in the game as the Bobcats totaled just nine hits to UTA's 11. The Bobcats had to overcome a pair of errors. For the Mavericks, Choice, Beck and Chad Comer each had two hits. Daniel Jordan drove in two runs with a second-inning single that gave UTA an early 3-2 lead. It tagged another run on in the fifth after a wild pitch.
Watson allowed four runs on seven hits in his 7.1-inning start. He struck out four and walked one in the no decision. Pritchard took the loss to fall to 2-1.
UT Arlington and Texas State will play again Saturday at 1 p.m. and the winner advances to the championship game, where Lamar awaits. The game, which starts at 6 p.m. will be televised by the Southland Conference Television Network.
Texas State coach Ty Harrington
"I felt as the game progressed we started having better at-bats. Obviously their left hander did a tremendous job early in the game and kept us at bay, worked us on both sides of the plates and tied us up. Later we started to get a little bit better swings at it. Thankfully J Mart (Jason Martinson) came through with a big time hit for us and then Stumph came through for us after the strikeout with a big time hit for us to go ahead. Brian Borski gave us a chance with his four innings of pitching, great relief out of (Fielding) Pittman and then of course, Carson Smith was electric tonight.
"We're in a different moment. We'll enjoy this moment tonight and roll back into a different moment tomorrow and get ready for the next game, it's what we've been doing all year."
Texas State catcher Andrew Stumph
"It was just a team effort; no one wants to go home, everyone wants to make a regional. We were told if we got about three wins we would go to a regional so everyone wants that. Also to win the conference tournament would be nice for our team and our school to show everyone that we never give up.
"Everyone wants it. We won conference but conference and the conference tournament are huge. We've never done that at the school. That would be huge for our school and our team going into a regional.
"We were hitting the balls hard early on and whenever you are hitting them hard you just have to wait for them to start falling. That's what we did and the balls started falling and the tide started turning our way."
UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas
"First start of the year, he (Brian Watson) has had 20 relief appearances. One thing about Brian, he's a senior so he's not scared. He'll always keep the ball down in the zone and gave us our best chance of winning tonight. We were very short-handed on the mound and he did a great job for us.
"He was tired, I think we could have left him out there but I would have second-guessed myself, he threw an inning yesterday and he was out of gas. He did his job, I thought our relievers did a nice job; there were a couple of ground balls that got through. The ball that tied the game, it was a two hopper that got through. I thought we pitched extremely well and competed, you just have to give them credit.
"We'll have a couple more guys available to throw. Anytime you get in any kind of postseason tournament, the toughest game is the first game after you lose. It's easy to play when the momentum is on your side and you're winning."