Texas State playing loose again might’ve had something to do with John Wuthrich being back in the lineup.
The junior outfielder had been sidelined since Feb. 22 with an injury before making just his fourth start of the season on Friday. He swung for a base hit to centerfield in his first at-bat of the weekend and grinned when he reached first.
“It was pretty fun to write No. 7 back in the lineup, it’d been a while,” head coach Steven Trout said. “He’s worked extremely hard to get back and so we gotta make sure he continues to feel good … He was like a kid in the candy store. It was Opening Day for him again.”
Coincidentally, the maroon and gold look like the team it was supposed to be all year, taking a series win at Bobcat Ballpark over Arkansas State.
“I think the morale’s up a lot when he’s in the lineup,” senior outfielder Chase Evans said. “You know, he’s a guy who could change the game in one swing and it’s really good to have him back, and especially out there on defense as well.”
After Wuthrich’s single, the Red Wolves went on to take a 3-0 lead by the top of the fifth inning of the series opener Friday. Trout told his team to stick with their approach at the plate and start loading up base runners.
Evans obliged, sending a solo home run to left field for Texas State’s first score of the game.
“I went down 0-2 and I was really looking for a pitch to try to hit to the middle of the field. And he hung a changeup up there and I got it and was able to keep it fair,” Evans said. “It’s fun to watch this offense when we’re going, see how dangerous we really can be.”
Evans’ one big hit wasn’t going to be enough to win the game, though. As he rounded third base, he turned to the maroon and gold dugout and wound his wrist toward the bench, motioning for the team to keep it going.
His teammates followed suit. After Evans’ homer, Wuthrich got a fly ball to drop in shallow left field, reaching first base on an error. Junior third baseman Justin Thompson followed it up with a base hit, pushing Wuthrich to third. Senior left fielder Will Hollis swung for another single in the next at-bat, sending Wuthrich home for another score.
The Bobcats received a free base in their next five plate appearances, bringing four more runners across the dish without surrendering an out. Sophomore designated hitter Jose Gonzalez added one more run with a sacrifice fly to centerfield that allowed senior second baseman Jaxon Williams to tag up from third.
Suddenly, Texas State found itself on top, 7-3. The hosts kept their foot on the gas, too. After keeping the Red Wolves off the bases in the top of the seventh inning, the maroon and gold added another four with an RBI single from junior shortstop Dalton Shuffield and a three-run homer from senior first baseman Cole Coffey. The team finished the night with an 11-4 win.
“The mindset was just get back to having fun,” Trout said. “You know, you just feel like over the whole season and some of the stretches, our guys are putting pressure on themselves because they want to be great, right? And so they’re just not having fun and so sometimes you just gotta get back, stay loose and quit worrying about results so much and just get back to having fun playing baseball.”
The fun continued Saturday when Wuthirch and Thompson connected on RBI base hits that handed the Bobcats a come-from-behind 6-5 win over Arkansas State (11-22, 6-9 Sun Belt). And while the team couldn’t complete the sweep on Sunday, falling 12-1, Trout was still pleased with the effort by his players.
“I thought they stayed loose, I thought they stopped trying to do too much at the plate,” Trout said. “I told them (Sunday), we had six hits but I thought all day long we were hitting barrel after barrel after barrel. They kept making plays, kept hitting it right at them and that’s baseball sometimes. And so, balls didn’t go our way today but I liked our approach, I liked our energy. So yeah, I thought we made some strides this weekend.”
Texas State (17-24, 7-8) will be on the road all week, traveling to Texas A&M (23-19, 5-13 SEC) for a midweek game on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. before heading to Louisiana (22-17, 8-7) for its next weekend series.
