Marshall Baseball captured the series against the Texas State Bobcats on Friday and Saturday, April 5-6, but couldn’t finish the sweep on Sunday, April 7, at Jack Cook Field with a 7-4 loss.
“Tough loss today,” head coach Greg Beals said postgame. “We had an opportunity to sweep a series.”
Marshall has yet to sweep an opponent this season and prolonged that streak with Sunday’s loss. The Herd has especially struggled in the bullpen during the third game of each series in Sun Belt Conference play, as Marshall has yet to win a third game against any conference opponent this season.
“You like to win the series at home,” Beals said, “but we had an opportunity to sweep today. Just unfortunate we weren’t able to take care of business in the last three innings.”
First baseman Caden Kaiser advanced home off an early error by the Bobcats to make the score 1-0 in the Herd’s favor. Marshall’s starting pitcher Carter Lyles then pitched effectively through the first four innings before surrendering a game-tying run in the fifth. Facing off versus 19 batters for the Bobcats, Lyles surrendered five total hits but dealt no walks and two strikeouts.
“Carter gave us a great start and gave us a great opportunity,” Beals said. “He put us in a great position coming off of Blevins’ complete game, and the bullpen was in great shape.”
The Herd’s batting department got back to work and secured two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, with Tre Hondras and eventually Cam Harthan scoring to make the score 3-1 in Marshall’s favor. A fielding error by the Bobcats allowed Hondras to round the remainder of the bases, and AJ Havrilla then singled home Harthan from third base.
Griffin Miller, who relieved Carter Lyles atop the mound beginning with the sixth inning, was shelled in the seventh inning, allowing Texas State to collect three more runs to retake the lead, 4-3. Marshall battled back, with Owen Ayers scoring off a wild pitch in the bottom eighth, tying the score 4-4.
Nick Weyrich made his second appearance of the weekend after Miller was pulled with one out remaining in the seventh. After a quiet eighth, Weyrich unraveled in the ninth inning, allowing three more runs to the Bobcats. Marshall failed to respond offensively.
“We helped them out,” Beals said. “They’re a good enough ballclub that you can’t help them out, as they’ll nab you when you make mistakes.”
Marshall committed no fielding errors but was out-bat 14-8 by Texas State in the contest, stranding nine runners on base. Texas State stranded 10 runners on base with three fielding errors.
On the weekend, Marshall improved to 11-19 overall, with a 5-7 record in Sun Belt Conference play. It now sits 11th of 14 teams in the conference standings, six games behind the league-leading Louisiana Ragin Cajuns, who will contest Marshall this weekend.
“We’ve got WVU on Wednesday, and then we take on the top team in the Sun Belt this weekend on the road at Louisiana,” Beals said. “Great opportunities and challenges for us, and we’re looking forward to it.”
The first pitch for Marshall versus WVU is at 6 p.m. at Jack Cook Field.
