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Baseball Heads North for Second Tilt with Texas
April 7, 2008
SAN MARCOS - The Texas State Bobcats will take the remains of their weekend sweep north when they look to knock-off the No. 12 Texas Longhorns Tuesday night at The Dell Diamond. This will be the second meeting for the teams this year, but the first on neutral grounds with the opening pitch slated for 6:05 p.m. The Bobcats (17-10; 9-3 SLC) took on four home games last week, opening with TCU and closing out with three contests against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The opening game with the Horned Frogs fell through after the `Cats jumped off to a 5-3 lead when the visitors retaliated with five consecutive scoring innings to steal a 12-8 victory. Texas State countered in league action, limiting the Islanders to just nine total runs in the series. Texas (21-10; 7-5 Big XII) is 4-4 in its last eight games after a two-and-one league series with Oklahoma, taking game one and three from the Sooners. The `Horns put two on the board early in the mid game, but OU chipped their way to the top, 5-2, before the Orange could muster up their final run in the seventh. The Horns offense has been led by Cameron Rupp who sports a .380 batting average and a .658 slugging percentage. Rupp has put 30 hits on the board, including 14 for multi-bases and helps out with 30 runs scored and 23 RBI to date. As a team, Texas displays a .308 batting average, 56 points above their opponents. The Bobcats maintain their power at the plate with a team batting average of .319, nearly 40 points over their counterparts. Laurn Randell's bat tops the chart with a .407 average and his speed on the bases hands him a team-leading stolen base mark of 14. Randell has knocked 37 hits, 20 RBI and scored 26 runs for the `Cats this season. On the mound, the teams will pit right-handed hurlers Zack Boles against Chance Ruffin. This will be Boles' second-career start and his fifth appearance on the mound. The hurler tossed one inning over the weekend, taking two of three outs on his own. Boles has held his opponents to just six runs off six hits and limited their batting average to .207. Ruffin will enter the game with a 1.96 ERA and a 2-2 record. The pitcher has tossed 23.0 total innings and allowed eight runs to plate off 14 hits.
Texas still heads the all-time series mark, 26-9. The Longhorns took a 9-6 victory in March, but the `Cats broke away for a 4-3 win at Dell Diamond in the fall. Tuesday's game can be followed on 89.9 KTSW FM or through the live stats link on www.texassports.com. |
