April 25, 2008

San Marcos, Texas - - The Texas State could not overcome some timely late-inning hitting by the Lamar Cardinals as the Bobcats suffered a hard-luck 5-4 loss in 10 innings against the Lamar Cardinals at Bobcat Field.

Texas State took a 3-0 lead through the first four innings off Lamar's starting pitcher Brian Sisk. The Bobcats scored the first run on the game in the bottom of the first inning. Thomas Field began the inning with a walk off of Sisk and advanced to third on an error by Sisk.

Sisk booted a ball tapped up the first base line by Lance Loftin. He scored the second run of the inning when Laurn Randall hit a single to right field. The inning ended when Adam Witek grounded into a double play.

The Bobcats extended their lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Adam Witek hit his first home run of the season with a line-drive shot down the left field line.

Lamar scored its first run when David Moore hit a home run off Mike Hart in the top of the fifth inning. The Cardinals added another run in the sixth when Steven Tucker hit a home run into left center with two outs in the inning.

Lamar came back to take the lead in the top of the eighth when Hart walked Moore to open the inning. After Logan Pace moved him to second on a sacrifice bunt, Tyler Link scored Moore with a single to center and tied the score at 3-3. Link scored the go-ahead run from first when Tucker hit an RBI single right center. Hart struck out Chris Dunkin to end the top half of the inning.

In the bottom of the eighth, Texas State threatened to score when Jason Martinson reached first on an error by Sisk to open the inning. After Martinson reached first base, Tim Erickson came into relieve Sisk. Thomas Field moved Martinson into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, but Erickson got out of trouble when Babcock grounded out to shortstop and then got Paul Goldschmidt to ground out to the pitcher to end the inning.

Josh Walter relieved Hart in the ninth and got two quick outs when Travis Dunson struck out and Vickers grounded out to first base. Nik Gumeson had the first hit off Walter when he singled to left center. Moore ended the inning with a pop fly to Lance Loftin at third.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Texas State tied the score when Spencer Dennis singled to left field to driving in Laurn Randell, who reached on a walk by Erickson after Lance Loftin struck out. Witek put Randell in scoring position when he singled to left center. After Erickson hit Ben Theriot in the head to load the bases, Dennis singled to left field to drive in Randell. But, that was the only run the Bobcats would score as Jason Martinson struck out and Thomas Field grounded out to second base to send the game into extra innings.

The Cardinals threatened again in the top of the 10th when Logan Pace walked and Tyler Link reached on a two-base error by the Elliott Babcock to put runners on second and third with no outs. Brian Taylor hit a sacrifice fly to center to drive in Pace and put Lamar back in front 5-4 before Walter struck Steven Tucker for the second out of the inning. The top half of the inning ended when Dunkin grounded out to second base.

In the bottom half of the 10th inning, Erickson recorded the first two outs of the inning when Babcock flied out to right center and he picked off Paul Goldschmidt off first base after Goldschmidt had singled through the right side. The Bobcats threatened again when Loftin and Randell hit back-to-back singles to right field to put runners on first and second. But Erickson struck out Witek to improve his overall record to 5-1. Walter took a hard-luck loss and dropped to 3-2 this year.