Top-seeded Texas State rallies late to power past No. 10 ULM

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Top-seeded Texas State found itself down 2-0 at the halfway point of its quarterfinal game against ULM, but it’s not like the 11th-ranked Bobcats haven’t been there before.

“We’ve been in these games all year long,” said Texas State coach Steven Trout. “I would love to get up early and stay ahead, but that’s just not the way we like to do things, I guess.”

The Bobcats found a way once again, scoring seven runs in the sixth and seventh innings to overcome an early 2-0 ULM lead, and went on to take an 8-2 victory in the final quarterfinal game of the Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Baseball Championship presented by Troy University.

Texas State (45-11), the regular season champion and top seed, got an RBI single from designated hitter Wesley Faison in the sixth that gave the Bobcats a 3-2 lead. One inning later, Faison delivered a two-run single as the only hit in a four-run inning that gave Texas State some breathing room.

“We’ve been in these kind of games all year,” said Faison, who struck out in his first two plate appearances before the clutch hits. “I think the experience really comes out to play in the later innings. A lot of games we’ve hung in close and then the experience takes over in the seventh, eighth and ninth, that’s where we do our best.”

The Bobcats, who face fourth-seeded Louisiana in Saturday’s 7 p.m. semifinal game, had registered on only two hits against ULM starter Cam Barlow in the first five innings. Meanwhile, the Warhawks (20-35-1) had struck for the two early runs in the second inning on Colby Deaville’s leadoff single and Michelle Artzberger’s home run to right-center.

“We had them stumbling a little bit tonight,” said ULM coach Michael Federico. “I thought Barlow gave us a really quality start, and the big hit by Artzberger to get the two runs was huge. We had some opportunities, I thought we could have expanded the lead a few times, and maybe get another pitcher into the game and made them panic a little.”

But Bobcat starter Zeke Wood settled down after Artzberger’s home run, not allowing another hit in his five innings of work, and reliever Triston Stivors (7-1) faced only two over the minimum in three innings of work. In all, three Bobcat pitchers recorded 15 strikeouts with Wood getting nine in the first four innings.

“Stivors comes in and stifles you,” Federico said. “He just smothers you with all that spin. They just smothered us with strikeouts, that was the name of the game tonight.”

Texas State finally got to Barlow (2-7) in the sixth when Cameron Gibbons had a leadoff single and Isaiah Ortega-Jones’ sacrifice bunt was misplayed. Sun Belt Player of the Year Dalton Shuffield followed with his third hit of the game to load the bases and chase Barlow, and a wild pitch and Justin Thompson’s sacrifice fly scored two runs before Faison’s first single gave the Bobcats the lead for good.

Three walks, a hit batsman and a Warhawk error helped provide the four seventh-inning runs, with Shuffield getting an RBI ground ball and Thompson drawing a bases-loaded walk for two runs prior to Faison’s game-breaking two-run single to left field. The Bobcats were limited to seven hits, all singles, but scored five unearned runs thanks to three ULM errors.

“We always talk about being where our feet are and attacking it one pitch at a time,” Faison said. “There wasn’t a lot of panic going on early in the game even though we were struggling at the plate, we knew if we just stayed to our approach that our offense was going to come. Finally when the big three-spot did hit, it was like there was a little bit of relief.”

Texas State added a final run in the eighth on Shuffield’s ground ball before Jonathan Martinez got three outs in the ninth.