University Star

Texas State baseball is riding a five-game losing streak after being swept in a three-contest series on the road against Southeastern Louisiana last weekend.

The Lions outscored the Bobcats 24-3 in the three games, with scores of 10-1, 8-1 and 6-1. The sweep drops Texas State into a seventh-place tie in the Southland Conference with an 8-10 record and 20-15 overall.

The first game of the series saw an early deficit for the Bobcats, as the Lions put up three runs in the first inning. Travis Ballew, junior pitcher, was on the mound for Texas State in the series opener and went four and one-third innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on six hits and five walks.

Walks were the Achilles’ heel of Bobcat pitchers on the night, as four of the seven batters walked came around to score.

The lone run for Texas State came from Tyler Sibley, senior second baseman, as he blasted his first homerun of the season and No. 18 of his career.

As walks served as the Bobcats’ weakness the first game, errors filled that role in the second. 

Four errors led to eight runs between the third and fourth innings, and the Bobcats were in another early hole they were unable to escape.

“The thing that has gotten away from us is the fundamentals of the game itself,” Coach Ty Harrington said. “The fundamental part of this game is a very particular process. There are really a lot of things involved in this game that you must do in order to earn a win, and we didn’t do a very good job of that this weekend.”

The series finale offered hope early on against the sweep, as Kyle Finnegan, sophomore pitcher, threw six and one-third innings. He left the game scoreless, but allowed three of the first four batters to reach base in the bottom of the seventh.

Again, the Lions capitalized on their chances, as they put up all six of their runs in the seventh inning. The Bobcat bullpen could not do much to stop the bleeding and were forced to use four pitchers.

“(SLU) had a good weekend,” he said. “They battled incredibly hard and did a very good job of hitting the ball.”

Jeff McVaney, senior outfielder, served as the only run in the game, hitting a solo home run. That home run pushed McVaney into a team tie for most homeruns on the season with seven and improved his hitting streak to 19 games.

He will look to extend that streak against the No. 25 Texas Longhorns.

The Bobcats and Longhorns are set to clash Tuesday at Disch-Falk Field in Austin. The first pitch is to be thrown at 6:30 p.m. and Texas State aims to improve its record against ranked opponents to 7-3.

“I think for us right now, playing well and winning a game will make our confidence and self esteem go up,” Harrington said. “Any kind of win against any kind of opponent at this point will help our confidence level.”