May 19th, 2010
Bobcats tune up with route of Prairie View A&M

The Texas State baseball team will play Texas-Arlington at home this weekend as they attempt to capture their second straight Southland Conference regular season championship. Texas State sports information photo.

STAFF REPORT

Texas State’s baseball team tuned up for its huge series against Texas-Arlington (UTA) this weekend with a 16-6 win against Prairie View A&M Tuesday night at Bobcat Field.

Kyle Kubitza went five-for-five with three RBI and Kyle Livingstone was four-for-six with a homer and five RBI in the Texas State route. The Bobcats finished off the game with a ten-run eighth inning to send everyone home early. Up to that point, the game was surprisingly tied, 6-6.

The win moved Texas State up to 32-19 overall, while Prairie View A&M fell to 12-35.

The Bobcats now move on to the final series of the regular season Thursday through Saturday against UTA. The games are set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, then 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Bobcats are tied on top of the Southland Conference with Southeastern Louisiana at 21-9 in the league. But Southeastern Louisiana, which plays this weekend at Northwestern State, holds the tiebreaker for winning two of three against the Bobcats April 16-18.

Texas State will send Carson Smith (8-3, 2.83 ERA) to the mound Thursday, followed by Michael Russo (4-1, 4.24) Friday and Mitchell Pitts (5-1, 4.20) Saturday.

Thus, this weekend will decide the regular season Southland Conference champion, which will take the top seed in the league tournament next weekend in Corpus Christi.

The Bobcats, who are trying to win their second straight regular season title, finished second in last year’s conference tournament, but picked up an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they bowed out after losing their two games at the Austin Regional.