Texas State Crushes Old Southland Rival in Weekend Opener

By Reily Chestnut
Assistant Sports Director

“Light the star on Jackson Hall!”–Bill Culhane

Texas State apparently didn’t have time for a nostalgia trip. The Bobcats’ offense shook the foundations of Bobcat Ballpark by sucker punching McNeese State 12-1 to start the second series of 2018 on a high note. It certainly helps get that Tuesday night loss to Wayne Graham’s Rice Owls out of my head. Now let’s see how Texas State knocked this game out of the park.

It begins on the mound as sophomore right-hander Nicholas Fraze put his stamp on this Cowboys’ lineup. Fraze pitched all seven innings of his start unfazed, striking out six Cowboys en route to giving up just one unearned run on two hits. Cue a clean relief spot from redshirt freshman Alex Klitsas, and just like that the Bobcat pitchers technically shutout McNeese State. That is incredible since this season we have seen Nicholas Fraze put together back-to-back impressive performances in his FIRST two starts. All I’m saying is this guy has started to look like a Friday night starter. Anyways, let’s move on to the butter on top of this bread.

Texas State’s lineup wasn’t taking any prisoners tonight. The ‘Cats wanted to slaughter these Cowboys worse than any incident from the old west. They blasted four different pitchers for a season-high 14 hits. In fact, this was the team’s fourth straight game with at least ten hits. Someone call the fire department because this lineup has been on fire to start the season. It is really difficult to pinpoint an absolute beast to highlight from this Bobcat batting order. But I got to give the best Bobcat batting belt (my own creation) to senior left fielder Dylan Paul. Paul ran the table once again by having his third multi-hit game this season. They have only played FIVE games. Specifically, Paul went 3-for-5 with a double, drove in two runs and scored one. Still, give a hand to the Bobcats for the collective effort of thrashing their old conference rivals.

The victory moved the Bobcats’ 2018 record to 2-3 while the Cowboys, who are the reigning Southland Conference champions, have lost their fifth straight to start the season. The best part, reigning Sun Belt CC Pitcher of the Week Connor Reich takes the mound Saturday afternoon at four p.m. here on KTSW 89.9!

Featured image Marina Bustillo-Mendoza.