| Junior Lance Brown went 2-for-4 with his third homer of the year on Saturday. |
SAN ANTONIO ? No. 26 Texas State bounced back from Friday's 15-6 home loss to UTSA by pounding out 19 hits, including four home runs, and the Bobcats cruised to an 11-4 victory on Saturday at Roadrunner Field.
The Birds (26-20, 15-11 SLC) were unsuccessful in their first attempt to win the 500th game in the program's 18-year history and they dropped the middle game of a conference series for the fourth time in the last six weekends. Meanwhile, the Bobcats (32-12, 19-6 SLC) maintained their three-game lead in the league standings over Southeastern Louisiana.
It didn't take long for Texas State to light up the scoreboard, as it pushed a pair of runs across the plate in the first on run-scoring singles by Lance Loftin and Jason Martinson.
After UTSA drew within two with a run in the second, the Bobcats exploded for a five-spot one inning later, which featured a one-out homer off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt, his conference-leading 14th of the spring, and a two-run shot by Kyle Livingstone.
Senior Jose Hernandez led off the third with his 12th long ball of the season and the Roadrunners added single tallies in the third through fifth stanzas, but two more bombs in the sixth by Texas State, this time by Spenser Dennis and Martinson, led to three more runs and put the game out of reach.
Bobcats starter Zach Tritz (7-2) battled through five innings to get the win. The right-hander gave up four runs on a half dozen hits and six walks in addition to five strikeouts. Loftin, who began the game at designated hitter, relieved the younger brother of former UTSA standout, Noah, to start the sixth and blanked the Birds the rest of way for his first save of the year. He retired 11 of the first 12 hitters he faced and finished his outing with three strikeouts to go along with four hits.
Senior southpaw Kris Ruepke (1-5) was charged with the loss after surrendering seven runs on 10 hits in his three innings of work.
Junior Lance Brown went 2-for-4 with his third home run to lead UTSA at the plate and senior All-American Michael Rockett singled in the third to extend his hitting streak to 11 games.
The Roadrunners left 11 runners on base.
The rubber game of the series will be played at 1 p.m. on Sunday at the Bird Bath. Senior lefty Andy Benedict (2-1, 4.50 ERA) will go up against right-hander Brian Borski (5-2, 3.56).