April 7, 2004

Box Score

San Marcos, Texas - Texas State-San Marcos (18-15) once again came from behind to defeat Texas-Pan American (14-22) 13-8 Wednesday afternoon. UTPA will be back at Edinburg Baseball Stadium, Friday, April 9 for a doubleheader with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The first game is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m.

Texas-Pan American was the first team to get on the scoreboard. In the first inning with one out, Marco Garza (Jr./Mission, Texas/Sharyland HS) singled to center field. Tony Ortiz (Jr./Fort Worth, Texas/Nolan HS) ripped a double to right field to move Garza to third. The shortstop misplayed a grounder hit by Mark Rodriguez (Jr./San Antonio, Texas/Howard College) that allowed Garza to score, Ortiz to reach third and Rodriguez to reach first. Ryan Grimet (Fr./Pearland, Texas/Pearland HS) singled to right field to score Ortiz and make it 2-0.

Texas-State San Marcos would come right back in the bottom of the first inning. Nolan Mast led off with a sharp single to center field. With Mast running, Kyle Anson singled to left field with Mast stopping at third. A fielder's choice by Evan Tierce, forced Anson out at second and scored Mast. Following a ground out, with Tierce on second, Mark Cooper hit a two run home run to right field to make it 3-2. Both the Broncs and the Bobcats would score one run each in the second inning. That made the score, 4-3, Texas State heading into the fourth inning.

In the fourth inning, the UTPA bats came alive. Matt Eichel (Jr./Grapevine, Texas/Grapevine HS) led off with a single to center field. With one out, a single from T.J. Gilmer (So./Forney, Texas/Forney HS) and a walk by John Lopez (Jr./Mission, Texas/Mission HS) loaded the bases. Garza singled to right field to score Eichel and keep the bases loaded. Ortiz then ripped a double down the left field line to score Gilmer and Lopez and move Garza to third. Another double, this one by Rodriguez drove in Garza and Ortiz to make it 8-4.

The Bobcats would score a run in the fourth and fifth innings before opening up the offense in the sixth inning. Mast and Tony Chavez were hit by pitches and Tierce walked to load the bases after three batters. A wild pitch scored Mast and a walk to Matt Miller loaded the bases again. Cooper singled to right field to score Tierce and Chavez and move Miller to third. A fielder's choice forced Cooper out at second but scored Miller and put Steven Quintana on first. A walk and a fielder's choice put Quintana on third and C.J. Quayle on first. Patrick Crumpton doubled to left field to score Quintana to make it 11-8. Texas State would score two insurance runs in the seventh inning.

For UTPA, Ortiz was 2-for-2, had two double, scored two runs and drove in two runs, Garza was 2-for-5 and scored two runs and Gilmer was 2-for-3 and scored a run. Aaron Guerra (So./Edinburg, Texas/Edinburg HS) came on in the sixth inning to pitch and hit two batters and walked one, all of whom eventually scored. Guerra fell to 0-5 on the season.

For Texas State-San Marcos, Cooper was 3-for-5, had a home run, scored a run and drove in five runs, Tierce was 1-for-3, had a home run, scored three runs and drove in three runs and Quayle was 2-for-4. Chris Jean gave up two hits, walked two and struck out four batters in three and one-third innings to improve to 1-1.

"When you score eight runs, you should win" said Head Coach Willie Gawlik. "Tommy (Sorden) Sr./Austin, Texas/Navarro College) kept us in the game with the five innings he threw. It's not a good sign when your reliever hits his first two batters and walks the third batter. We gave up four runs before we could get an out. You're not going to win many games that way. We got a good series out of Tony who was 5-for-7, scored three runs, drove in three runs and had three doubles. Friday is a new game and we just want to bounce back at home against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi."