Texas State wanted to let the moment sink in after Tuesday’s 7-6 win over Texas.
Head coach Ty Harrington planned on making Wednesday’s practice short after the Bobcats stormed back from down 6-3 in the ninth to defeat the Longhorns.
Harrington isn’t sure how his team will perform after a thrilling win over Texas. But he wants the Bobcats to understand how important each out is as Texas State (28-13, 12-6 Sun Belt) travels to Lafayette, La. to take on Louisiana (20-24, 8-10) in a three-game series.
“You never know until you get there and move into the next moment,” Harrington said. “But, you’d like to think as a coach, it starts to give you a really good feeling and some confidence. But, what I want from them is for them to understand that it is every out. You don’t know. You just keep playing as hard as you can regardless of what the score is, regardless of how good of arms are out there, you just keep playing the game.”
Redshirt senior center fielder Skyler Valentine, who hit the game-winning single, said the Bobcats don’t care what out it may be, they’re always going to keep playing.
“It could be two outs in the bottom of the ninth, we’re always going to play hard,” Valentine said. “We’re going to play hard until the last out is made and I think that’s what makes our team tough. We can come out in the first inning and score five, or we can go into the ninth and score three or four and win. It doesn’t matter. At any point in the day we can do that. And our pitching staff, on the other hand, is really good. Hands down, I love this team. It’s a brotherhood and let’s just see where this thing goes.”
Texas State enters the weekend sitting in second place in the Sun Belt west division and second overall in the conference, while Louisiana is in fifth place in the west.
The Ragin’ Cajuns have two hitters batting above .300. Junior outfielder Todd Lott is hitting .323, while sophomore infielder Hayden Cantrelle has a .321 batting average.
The pitchers for this weekend’s series have not been announced. However, Louisiana will likely throw sophomore left-hander Austin Perrin (3-4, 5.01 ERA) in game one, while Texas State will likely have redshirt sophomore Hunter McMahon (4-4,1.35 ERA) on the mound.
The Ragin’ Cajuns will tentatively have junior Brandon Young (2-4, 4.04 ERA) pitching on Saturday and the Bobcats will throw junior righty Nick Fraze (6-3, 1.18 ERA).
Louisiana should end the series on Sunday with junior right-hander Jack Burk (1-1, 3.58 ERA) on the mound and Texas State will likely have senior righty Connor Reich (5-1, 2.94 ERA) pitching.
The series begins Friday at 6:30 p.m. at M.L. 'Tigue' Moore Field at Russo Park.
