Texas State Rallies as Humpal Reaches Milestone

By Matthew Hamill
Sports Director

With some help from the offense, Lucas Humpal earned his third straight win and moved to second all-time in strikeouts at Texas State as the Bobcats came from behind to beat Appalachian State 4-2 on March 18.

With runners on base and trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth, Granger Studdard singled and with the help of an error charged to left fielder Tyler Stroup, tied the game at two runs apiece with one out. Studdard wound up at third on the error and with two outs, Theodore Hoffman drove in the run with a double. Luke Shirley made it 4-2 by driving in Hoffman with a single to complete the rally.

Jonathan Ortega led off the rally with a one out walk to get on base. Once again, the Bobcats scored runs with two outs, something they’ve done very well all season.

The Mountaineers took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the second. Coming into the game, Humpal had only walked two batters all season; in that frame he walked three batters. Outside of the second, Humpal had a quality start going seven innings with four strikeouts, four walks and gave up three hits and two runs.

The Bobcats earned their fourth straight win against Sun-Belt opposition this season and are off to a 4-0 start Conference games.

Bobby Hampton started for Appalachian State and kept the hot bats of the Bobcats in check until losing command of his strike zone in the sixth. The freshman got off to a strong start but was chased out after five innings pitched.

Out of the bullpen, Chase Hodson earned his first save of the season pitching the eighth and ninth. The Redshirt Senior struck out three of the six batters he faced.

The Friday matinee was originally scheduled for the evening, but the first pitched was moved to 3 p.m. to avoid inclement weather.

The win improves the Bobcats to 13-5 (4-0 SBC,) Appalachian State fall to 4-14 (0-4 SBC.)