Steven Trout thought Texas State stuck to its game plan during parts of the Bobcats’ home game against No. 3 Texas on Tuesday.
But the team didn’t execute it throughout all nine innings of the game, resulting in a 5-1 home loss to the Longhorns.
“We gotta get back to executing what we’re asking them to do and getting back to how we play baseball,” Trout said. “And so, you saw signs of it there in the first, it was a good first inning. And then I thought our approach kind of went out the window there for a little bit and they kind of dominated us.”
Junior shortstop Dalton Shuffield bunted for a single in the bottom of the first inning for the first hit of the night. Sophomore first baseman Jose Gonzalez followed it up with another base hit to left centerfield that advanced Shuffield to third. And junior third baseman Justin Thompson drove a sacrifice fly to right field in the next at-bat, bringing Shuffield across and giving Texas State a 1-0 lead.
But the Bobcats (15-23, 5-7 Sun Belt) would only register one more hit for the rest of the game. The hosts were facing 18-mile an hour winds blowing in from the northeast that kept a few swings in play that typically would’ve landed over the fence. That didn’t stop Texas (31-8, 10-2 Big 12) from generating offense, though, as the Longhorns logged 10 hits over the final eight frames. The visitors scored two runs in the top of the third inning, taking their first lead of the game and never looking back.
“I thought we hit, you know, three or four balls really, really hard that probably would have went out any other night, but were caught tonight,” Trout said. “And that’s baseball, so you gotta find a way to score no matter what the weather is, no matter what the wind’s doing.”
The maroon and gold were also limited by a strong outing from Texas freshman right-handed pitcher Pete Hansen. Texas State senior centerfielder added a single in the bottom of the third, but Shuffield hit into a double play in the next plate appearance that ended the inning.
Hansen sat down the next 16 batters he faced before being relieved by freshman RHP Aaron Nix after the first out of the bottom of the ninth inning. Hansen (3-1) received the win and finished the game with four strikeouts to go along with three hits, one run and no walks on 92 pitches thrown.
Nix grounded out the final two batters of the game to hand Texas State the 5-1 loss.
“It’s probably good pitching. Sometimes you land on some balls and it doesn’t go as far, so you want to change. And then guys dictate at-bats sometimes,” Trout said. “So just gotta get back to playing confident, exciting baseball and then really, just expecting to win again.”
The maroon and gold will return to Sun Belt play looking to break a six-game losing streak, hosting Arkansas State for a three-game series beginning Friday at 6 p.m. inside Bobcat Ballpark. Trout said he feels his team needs to hit the reset button.
“You know, we’re 5-7 in conference, which is the most important thing right now. We’re two games out of first place,” Trout said. “We gotta go back to playing really good baseball. But we’re right in the thick of things in conference and that’s always the most important. And so we need to come out and play really well, pitch it really well and find a way to go win a series this weekend.”
