Senior Ryan Rummel reached base in two of his three plate appearances on Friday night.
SAN MARCOS — Carson Smith faced just three hitters over the minimum in tossing Texas State's first complete game shutout in 75 contests and the Bobcats opened this weekend's I-35 rivalry series with a 10-0 victory against UTSA on Friday night. The tilt was called after the top of the seventh due to the Southland Conference's 10-run rule.
Smith (6-3) struck out seven, walked one and allowed just a pair of singles in the 86-pitch performance (58 strikes). The right-hander allowed a single to senior Ryan Rummel to start the second and then went on to retire the next 13 Roadrunners he faced before giving up a base hit to senior Jeff Taliaferro with one down in the sixth.
Zach Tritz threw Texas State's last complete-game shutout on March 28, 2009, when he blanked Stephen F. Austin by the same 10-0 score (7 innings) in San Marcos.
The 30th-ranked Bobcats (26-14, 16-6 SLC) jumped out to an early lead with a four-run second and never looked back in handing the Roadrunners (14-25, 5-17 SLC) their third run-rule loss in their last seven league outings.
Jeff McVaney hit his sixth home run of the year on the first pitch he saw from UTSA starter Casey Selsor to lead off the inning. Texas State then got three consecutive run-scoring singles with two outs off the bats of Daniel Neumann, Laurn Randell and Bret Atwood.
Jason Martinson's RBI double in the next frame extended the advantage to five. That not only plated McVaney, who began the panel with a single, but it also pushed Martinson's hitting streak to 23 games (fourth-longest active streak in nation).
Another pair of two-out tallies came home in the fourth when Bret Atwood reached on a bunt hit and Kyle Livingstone followed with his sixth homer of the spring.
Randell's two-out single one inning later pushed Clint Vest across the plate with the Bobcats' eighth run of the night and Texas State finished off the rout with two more marks in the sixth.
Selsor (4-6) was charged with the loss after surrendering seven runs on eight hits and three walks in just 3.2 innings of work.
McVaney went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, a triple, the second-inning homer and two RBIs, as eight of the nine Bobcats' starters on offense reached base by hit or walk. Atwood, Livingstone and Randell each added a pair of hits.
Rummel went 1-for-2 with a walk to lead the Birds. Meanwhile, junior Tyler Carpenter went 0-for-3 and saw his career-long hitting streak come to an end at 19 games.
The series continues at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Bobcat Field in what will be the ninth and final contest of UTSA's season-long road trip.