In front of the largest crowd to ever attend a baseball game at Bobcat Ballpark, Texas State could not overcome a five-run deficit as the Bobcats fell to the No. 19 Texas Longhorns in a 5-2 loss.
Though Head Coach Steven Trout said he was proud of his team for making the game a competitive affair, it was the Bobcat offense that Trout had some concerns about.
“I thought it was a good game,” Trout said. “Offensively we had chances early to stretch one or two runs across and find a way to get the momentum. They did a good job in innings three through six in slowing us down at the plate.”
One of the issues on offense was the Bobcats plate appearances.
“I was a little frustrated on the offensive side of the ball,” Trout said. “It was just our approach and just trying to get too long with our swings.”
As Trout explained, the Longhorns pitching staff is a rotation that doesn’t give up many runs in a game having one of the lowest ERAs in the country.
“You have to keep swinging but you have to take the right approach,” Trout said. “With bad arms you can get away with a bad approach but with a team like Texas that can pitch under a 3 ERA, which is really good. You have to have a good approach when playing them.”
Though the Bobcats had a number of hits that failed to get through the gap, Trout said he wants his hitters to be focused at the plate throughout the game.
“There were hits that obviously didn’t work out for us but just from an overall perspective, we just got locked in late,” Trout said. “Maybe through innings three through six, if we sneak in one late that this is a different ballgame.”
One of the positives Trout took away from the game was the pitching staff.
The Bobcat bullpen allowed just two runs off of three hits and three walks through more than 6.2 innings of play.
“We threw the ball well tonight,’ Trout said. “Both Peyton Zabel and Nathan Medrano had good outings. Overall, we also played really good defense too.”
Medrano was the star on the mound, throwing 4.2 innings and allowing just three hits, one run, one walk and striking out eight Texas batters.
“I thought Medrano was lights out,” Trout said. “That is his third or fourth time coming out of the bullpen. Something about him coming out of the pen gets him going. His changeup and all of his pitches were all on point. We will obviously use that a lot going down the stretch. It shows me when you execute pitches you can get these guys out.”
Though the game was exciting on the field, the excitement was buzzing off the field as well, as Texas State broke the attendance record for most attended game in Bobcat Ballpark history with 3,425 people inside the stadium.
With the top four most attended games being against the Longhorns, the series between Texas State and Texas has gained notoriety over the past few years including the Bobcats upset win over the previous No. 1 ranked Longhorns last year.
With the series gaining more steam, Trout said he is happy to see the Bobcat fan base come out in full support.
“It’s 35 to 40 minutes up the road,” Trout said. “With Texas being a historic program, you want to make it as hostile of an environment as possible and make it fun. I couldn’t be more proud of the fans for showing up and getting after it.”
The series between Texas and Texas State continues as the Bobcats travel to Austin to take the Longhorns in their annual midweek series.
Yesterday’s game started after the time of press.
