Stephen F. Austin Eliminates Defending Champion Texas State
SAN MARCOS, Texas - Bobby Loveless hit a two-run home run in the
bottom of the eighth to cap a crazy game and give No. 6 seed Stephen F. Austin
a 9-7 win over No. 3 seed Texas State in the 2012 Southland Conference Baseball
Tournament Friday at Bobcat Ballpark.
SFA (25-32) will now take on Southeastern Louisiana Friday at 7
p.m., needing to win to keep its season alive. A win would force a second game
against the Lions on Saturday, while Southeastern needs just one victory over
SFA to advance to the championship game of the tournament.
The win was the first-ever win for SFA over Texas State (32-24) in
Southland tournament, snapping a five-game streak in the postseason including
Wednesday's 11-1 loss in the first round.
The Lumberjacks scored all nine of their runs in the their final
four at-bats, erasing a 3-0 lead with three consecutive two-run innings before
using homers from Loveless and Zach Benson in the bottom of the eighth to make
up for a four-run Texas State top of the eighth that put the Lumberjacks down
7-6 on a grand slam from Jeff McVaney.
Loveless' homer was his third of the tournament and extended his
hitting streak to 14 games, finishing 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI and two runs
scored. He was part of a 13-hit SFA attack against Bobcat pitching, handing the
loss to Louis Head, who allowed four runs in 1.2 innings of relief.
The comeback made a winner of Alex Moshier, who moved t 6-0 with
three innings of work. He gave up a season-high four runs on McVaney's grand
slam - the first home run he had allowed since April 19, 2009 - but rebounded
to retire the final six Texas State batters of the game. He had entered in
relief of starter Justin Choate to open the seventh inning after SFA had taken
a 4-3 lead, with Choate delivering a solid outing, going six innings and
allowing three runs on three hits, all in the first three innings of the game.
It took Choate some time to get out of the first inning, and not
after the Bobcats had built a 2-0 lead. Morgan Mickan started the push with a
walk, and after a double by Jeff McVaney, scored from third on a sacrifice fly
from Casey Kalenkosky. Two batters later Cody Gambill pushed home McVaney with
an RBI single to right before Choate ended a 34-pitch frame with a strikeout of
Nick Smelser.
McVaney made it 3-0 with his ninth homer of the year in the third,
a solo shot over the left-center field wall. Choate then put up a pair of zeros
on the board before the Lumberjacks were finally able to break through against
Taylor Black in the bottom of the fifth. Ricardo Sanchez hit a double into the
left-center field gap to start the inning and scored two batters later on a
grounder from Rene' Moreda.
Zach Benson then drew a two-out walk and scored all the way from
first to cut the Texas State lead to 3-2 when Hunter Dozier rocketed a double
into the right-center field gap.
Choate responded with a shutdown top of the sixth and the SFA
offense rewarded him with two more runs in the bottom half of the inning to
take a 4-3 lead. The Lumberjacks quickly loaded the bases with no outs and
pushed across two runs on an RBI single from Sanchez to tie the game, then went
ahead on a perfectly executed squeeze bunt by Rene' Moreda to score Jarid
Scarafiotti, who finished with two hits himself.
Moshier tossed a scoreless top of the seventh before getting two
more runs of support in the bottom of the inning on RBI from Scarafiotti and
Bryce Cummings. But Texas State wasted no time putting Moshier in a jam in the
eighth, using two singles and a walk to open the inning and load the bases for
McVaney, who cranked a 1-0 pitch over the left-field fence for a grand slam
that put the Bobcats back in front 7-6.
But Benson followed by socking the first pitch from Head in the
bottom of the eighth out to left field for his first homer of the season to tie
things back up at 7-7. Dozier followed with a single to set things up for
Loveless, who had to face Bobcat closer Dylan Adamek out of the bullpen.
Loveless ran the count to 2-0 and then drove the next pitch to the center field
side of the scoreboard in right to surge the 'Jacks back out in front.
Moshier then did his job and sat the Bobcats down in order in the
ninth to send SFA into the next round against Southeastern Louisiana.
The Lumberjacks will throw Chase Greening at the Lions against a
starter to be determined.
Postgame Quotes
Stephen
F. Austin coach Johnny Cardenas
"This conference is really stacked. There is a lot of parity in
this conference.
On Jeff McVaney's grand slam in top of
eighth affecting pitcher Alex Moshier
"That's going to happen. That's the game of baseball. Anytime you
get behind McVaney and give him something to hit, he's going to hurt you. He
did his job, finished the inning and gave us a chance to come back. Zach Benson
got his first home run of the year to tie the game, and Bobby Loveless
continued a great weekend. We had no qualms about sending Moshier back out
there to pitch the rest of the game."
On
Bobby Loveless' home run in the ninth
"It was unbelievable. He's seeing the ball like it's a beach ball
right now. I hope he continues to hit the ball like he has."
On
facing Southeastern Louisiana next, and again tomorrow if they win Friday
"I told the guys we can't think about beating them twice. We've got to think
about playing the game that's in front of us (tonight).
Stephen
F. Austin first baseman Bobby Loveless
"It was an outside fastball that he left up a little up, and I was
able to put the sweet part of the bat on the ball, got it up in the wind stream,
and it went out to right center. I was trying to hit it out to right field,
because that's where my money is and there was a runner on first base."
On
the wind blowing out during this tournament
"As a hitter I love coming here because, it's always blowing out
and if you can just get it up in the air, usually it will go out. Then again,
it hurt us with McVaney getting one up in the wind stream. Luckily it went our
way today."
"We just have to take it one game at a time. We've played
Southeastern Louisiana tough all year, so we feel like we can play with them
step for step. It should be an interesting game tonight. Southeastern Louisiana
plays a lot of small ball, so that fits pretty well with us because we're more
of a power-hitting team."
Texas
State coach Ty Harrington
On
Jeff McVaney's grand slam to take the lead
"He's been such an unbelievable player for us for four years. I thought when he
came up he was going to give us a chance to do something. You never know
because this game doesn't always work out the way you want it to. I couldn't
have picked a better guy and a better moment for it to happen."
"It showed who they are as players and as people. This is
important stuff for them; we've won a lot of championships in the last couple
years. For them they weren't going to accept the fact that it was over. The
determination and desire they had came out, but we just weren't able to hold them
down at the end. They did a great job. The bottom line was Stephen F. Austin
was good enough itself to get out there and have some good at bats too."