Bobcats Take Series Opener Against Trojans

LITTLE ROCK – Little Rock baseball (10-20, 3-7 Sun Belt) opened its three-game series against Texas State (20-11, 7-3 Sun Belt) with a 7-3 loss on Friday night at Gary Hogan Field.
 
Hunter Owens and Danny Mitchell Jr. both had multiple hits for the night as they each went 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run. For Owens, it was his 14th multiple-hit game this season, and he advanced his reached-base streak to 12 games. Cameron Knight had the other RBI for the Trojans as he went 1 for 4. Cale Ridling made the most of his at-bats as walked twice while going 1 for 2 with a run.
 
Despite tying his career high with 11 strikeouts, Trojan starter Cory Malcom (2-2) picked up the loss as he gave up seven runs (five earned) on five hits and six walks in 5.1 innings. Little Rock relievers Justin Garcia, Jacob Rateliff, McKinley Moore and Matt McDowell did their job out of the bullpen in the final 3.2 innings as they allowed nothing while striking out three Bobcats.
 
Texas State's Connor Reich (2-2) earned the win as he threw seven innings, struck out three and allowed three runs on seven hits and three walks.
 
The Bobcats' offense got it going early in the top of the first inning. With one out and two runners on from walks, Theodore Hoffman hit a three-run blast over the center field wall to put Texas State up 3-0.
 
After Owens got the bottom of the first started with a leadoff triple, Knight hit a one-out RBI single back up the middle and cut the Trojans' deficit to 3-1.
 
Texas State upped its lead to three again in the top of the fourth. After a Luke Sherley walk and a Cole Coffey double began the inning, Jacob Almendarez picked up the RBI on a ground out to short as Sherlely scored the Bobcat's fourth run of the night.
 
Little Rock had it biggest inning in the bottom of the fifth. After a one-out double by Ridling, Mitchell hit a two-out RBI single through the right side. Owens then hit an RBI single of his own as Mitchell scored from first to cut the Trojans' deficit to 4-3.
 
After a three-run inning to start the game, the Bobcats put up another in the bottom of the sixth. Jaylen Hubbard struck out to begin the inning, but he reached first on a wild pitch. A dropped foul ball led to a Sherley single before a double steal put both runners in scoring position. Jared Huber put a one-out double down the left field line to score Hubbard and Sherley. Huber advanced to third on a balk after Almendarez walked and scored on another balk by the Trojans.
 
The Trojans were walked four times from the seventh inning on, but they couldn't rack up any hits to challenge the Bobcats' lead.
 
"Tonight was the first night in a long time that I felt our team was completely engaged in the ballgame for nine innings," head coach Chris Curry said. "That's something we've really challenged them on the last couple of days, and that's the first step. It's not good enough though, and we need to eliminate these mistakes. Anytime an offense like Texas State's gets five hits but scores seven runs, that means they got some help."

Little Rock will look to even the series against Texas State on Saturday at 2 p.m.