Bobcats Leave Missouri State Bears Hibernating

By Deshaun Hartley
Sports Reporter

On a beautiful sunny day, the Bobcats came out to play against the previously ranked #24 team, the Missouri State Bears. The Bears have a prestigious baseball program that includes accolades such as having 41 All-Americans, six players drafted in the first round, 19 MLB players and 11 NCAA Division One Regional appearances. The only problem is that they ran into the fifth year senior Connor Reich, who put on a pitching clinic. His six-inning pitching stint included seven strikeouts and one hit. Sixty percent of his first pitches were strikes. Simply amazing. The dominant pitching for the Bobcats lead to a convincing 10-0 win over the Bears to end their weekend with a 2 and 1 record.

For those of you who missed Saturday’s game, the Bobcats ended up getting shut out by Nevada, but today was a different story. Coach Ty Harrington challenged his guys to “come to the field with a different attitude” and that is exactly what they did. The maroon and gold scored multiple runs in three innings and a run in every inning except for two.

On the offensive side of things, junior Chase Evans went three for three, including three RBI’s to lead his team tonight. His powerful double off the wall brought in two of his three RBI’s and as soon as you blinked, he stole a base. That steal would set off a chain reaction of thievery for this team. Second baseman Jaxon Williams wanted to get in on the action too. He stepped up to the plate three times and converted on two of those at-bat appearances. His hit led to the bases being loaded. Soon after that Travon Benton hit a sac fly that lead to another run on the board.

The Bears just couldn’t keep up with Texas State’s pitching, not getting their first hit until the top of the sixth. They must’ve caught the bug that the Bobcats had on Saturday because Missouri State only put the ball into play twice. Those hits came from Joey Polak and Collin Clayton.

Texas State will have one day off after a weekend of baseball and will look to become bear tamers as they take on another bear I’m sure we have all heard of: the Baylor Bears. Bobcats will face the Bears Tuesday, 6 p.m., at Bobcat Ballpark. Catch all the action on KTSW 89.9.

Featured image by Deshaun Hartley.