Texas State Baseball: Cardiac ‘Cats strike again in Mobile

After being shut out in back-to-back games for the first time since 2000, the fourth-seeded Bobcats were staring down the barrel of being blanked yet again before summoning up more of their late-inning magic against fifth-seeded Western Kentucky in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament Wednesday afternoon in Mobile, AL, winning 4-3 in 10 innings.

The teams knew that runs would be at a premium with both Texas State’s Taylor Black and Western Kentucky’s Justin Hageman sporting ERAs below 3.00, and both pitchers lived up to the billing. Black, a second team All-SBC selection, allowed the Hilltoppers just two runs on five hits over six innings of work, striking out five while working around a season-high five walks before giving way to Andrew Boes and Justin Dellinger, who kept the Bobcats within striking distance. Meanwhile Hageman, a first team All-SBC selection himself, stymied the Bobcats through the first eight innings, allowing just three hits, striking out six and walking four while working out of multiple jams. Twice in the first three innings, the Bobcats got the lead-off man on, but could not bring him around. But in the ninth, down 3-0, the Bobcats finally broke out of their 26-inning funk against WKU’s top-rated bullpen.

It started against star closer Ian Tompkins, the conference leader in saves with 14 heading into the tournament. After Tompkins plunked Granger Studdard and issued a five-pitch walk to Austin O’Neal, however, head coach Matt Myers and seen enough and yanked his star reliever. After a Cody Lovejoy fielder’s choice to put runners on the corners, Tyler Pearson ripped an RBI single through the left side off of Sam Higgs, scoring Studdard. David Paiz, hitting for Trey Hicks, followed that with a sharp line-drive single into left field, loading the bases. Then, after Brennan Pearson issued a bases-loaded walk to Tanner Hill, Cory Geisler stepped up and delivered the game-tying sac fly to score Pearson. Now, we all know that in sports, sometimes you need to catch a break or two to win, and that’s exactly what happened for the Bobcats on this play. Regan Flaherty caught Geisler’s fly ball in fairly shallow right field and fired a strike to catcher Ryan Messex that beat Pearson to the plate, likely sending Bobcat fans flashing back to a similar play over the weekend in which Pearson was thrown out in a 1-0 loss against UT-Arlington. However, Messex couldn’t hang onto the throw as Pearson flew by him, and the Bobcats had new life as the teams headed to extras.

After freshman Dylan Bein came in and pitched a perfect top half of the 10th, the stage was set for the Bobcats, a team with four walk-off wins to their credit coming in. Studdard started things by working a one-out walk. O’Neal followed with a sharp line-drive single into right-center, moving Studdard over to third. Then Lovejoy stepped up to the plate and into the spotlight, delivering the walk-off sac fly to score Studdard and send the Bobcat dugout spilling out onto the field in jubilation. It was also vindication of sorts for Lovejoy, who was robbed of a sure run-scoring double by Leiff Clarkson to end the seventh inning.

With the win, the Bobcats advanced into the winner’s bracket, and will face top-seeded Louisiana-Lafayette Thursday afternoon at 4:00 p.m.

Texas State Baseball: The Ty Harrington Reloading Project

Texas State athletics may not have had much sustained success since the turn of the century, but the baseball program has flourished in that time under head coach Ty Harrington.

When Harrington took over before the 2000 season, the program had a 463-386-3 record (.540) since its inception in 1985. For the past 15 seasons under Harrington’s steady hand, the program has amassed a 507-378 record. (.573) He has brought three regular season conference championships (2009, 2010, 2011) and two conference tournament championships (2000, 2011) to San Marcos, and has led the Bobcats to more NCAA Tournament appearances (3) during his tenure than the previous three coaches combined (2).

A key in Harrington building up the program has been his steady leadership. He has lead the school through the transition from the Southland Conference to the Western Athletic Conference in 2013 and now the move to the Sun Belt Conference in the 2014 season. Through it all, Harrington’s teams have consistently competed for conference championships despite adversity and the constant turnover of college athletes, posting at least 30 wins in all but two seasons, at least 36 wins six times and at least 40 wins twice, the best mark being their 41-17 record during the 2009 season.

How does Harrington do it? How does he keep the program consistently competitive despite the constant turnover in college sports? The answer is simple–he doesn’t rebuild, he does what every good coach does and reloads with recruiting, then combines that with veteran leadership.

Harrington’s sustained success has consistently brought more high-profile talent to San Marcos, which in turn created more success, which in turn brought more exposure and attention to the program, thus drawing in even more huge talent–it’s been a never-ending cycle.

The most notable Texas State product is current Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt was selected in the 8th round of the 2009 MLB First-Year Player Draft, marking the then-highest ever selection for the program. He has since gone on the become an All-Star in the 2013 season, and also finished as the National League MVP runner-up to Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates last season. But Goldschmidt is not the only notable alum in the MLB pipeline. Harrington has produced 32 MLB draft picks, most notably Goldschmidt, Jeff McVaney, Kyle Finnegan, Louis Head, Kyle Kubitza and Travis Ballew.

McVaney, an outfielder and closer for the Bobcats from 2009-2012, was selected in the eighth round of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft by the Detroit Tigers, and is currently hitting .252 with five homers and 34 RBI with the Lakeland Flying Tigers of the Class A Advanced Florida State League.

Head, a reliever for Texas State in the 2011 and 2012 seasons, was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 18th round of the 2012 draft and amassed an 0-3 record with a 2.21 ERA and nine saves with the Carolina Mudcats of the Class A Advanced Carolina League this season. Head was just recently promoted to the Akron RubberDucks of the Double-A Eastern League, where he has yet to appear in a game.

Kubitza, an infielder from 2009-2011, was a third-round pick by the Atlanta Braves in the 2011 draft, the highest-ever selection for a Bobcat. He is currently hitting .291 with two homers and 14 RBI in 53 games with the Mississippi Braves of the Double-A Southern League this season.

Finnegan, who pitched for the Bobcats from 2011-2013, was taken by the Oakland Athletics in the sixth round of the 2013 draft. Finnegan currently possesses a 5-1 record and a 2.51 ERA in 11 starts with the Beloit Snappers of the Class A Midwest League.

Ballew, who pitched for Harrington from 2010-2012, was a 23rd round selection by the Houston Astros in the 2012 draft. He is currently with the Corpus Christi Hooks of the Double-A Texas League, where he has a 3-1 record with three saves and a 3.47 ERA in 17 games.

As you can see, Harrington’s success has attracted major-league talent to San Marcos, and that is exactly how he reloads every season. He has lost pitchers like Carson Smith, (Mariners organization, AAA) and then reloaded with pitchers such as Ballew, Finnegan and Colton Turner, who was a 21st round selection by Toronto in the 2012 draft. After Goldschmidt was drafted in 2009, Bret Atwood, who ended his career second on the Bobcats’ all-time hit list (244) was waiting in the wings. He lost Kubitza after the 2011 season, but had McVaney, Casey Kalenkosky and Tyler Sibley, Texas State’s all-time hits leader (282) to fall back on. One of the most notable jobs he did was in the 2013 season, during which Texas State finished 29-29. But that team was expected to struggle much more, having lost five players from the previous year’s 32-24 team to either graduation or the MLB draft–Ballew, Turner, Head, McVaney and Kalenkosky. McVaney and Calenkosky combined to hit over .300 with 61 homers and 249 RBI during their time at Texas State. Head was a key reliever, and Ballew and Turner were the stalwarts of the weekend pitching staff. So what did Harrington do? He reloaded.

For starters, he turned to freshman Lucas Humpal, who posted a 5-2 record with a 3.30 ERA and was a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, and Taylor Black, who finished the season with a deceptive 3-7 record and 4.43 ERA.

For the relief role, he turned to set-up man Donnie Hart, who led the team with a 2.13 ERA that season, and Hunter Lemke, who finished with a 2.28 ERA and eight saves, tying the Texas State single-season record.

At the plate, Harrington needed a way to at least imitate the run production of McVaney and Kalenkosky. And waiting in the wings were sophomores Garrett Mattlage and Cody Lovejoy, junior Austin O’Neal and seniors Kevin Sah and Andrew Stumph. Sah started 49 games, hitting .293 while drawing 25 walks and boasting a .393 on-base percentage as the season-long leadoff man. And after Sah set the table, Lovejoy, O’Neal, Stumph and Mattlage knocked him in. Lovejoy finished the season as the team’s leading hitter at .337 with one homer and 22 RBI, while O’Neal, Mattlage and Stumph combined to drive in 107 runs on the season, with Mattlage hitting .320, O’Neal hitting .322 and Stumph hitting .290.

While the job in 2013 was admirable, I believe the 2014 season truly embodied Harrington’s ability to combine the reloading process with his steady veterans. Gone were Stumph and Hart, two of the most reliable players from previous squads.

This season saw a team that, despite the fairly unimpressive 30-28 record, went toe-to-toe with some of the top teams in the country despite losing still more talent. Lemke, a senior, assumed the role of the go-to reliever late in games, posting a 5-3 record with a 2.70 ERA and a Texas State single-season record 11 saves in 27 appearances. Sophomore Cory Geisler emerged both at the plate, hitting .293 with two homers and 15 RBI, and as a shut-down middle reliever, posting a 1.97 ERA in 18 appearances. Garrett Mattlage continued to be the dependable every-game shortstop, finishing the season hitting .308 with five homers and a team-leading 44 RBI. But not to be outdone are three freshmen who stepped up and made an immediate impact in their inaugural seasons. Dylan Bein, the freshman from Cedar Park, Texas, assumed the role of main midweek starter and long-reliever, posting a deceiving 1-5 record with a 2.60 ERA in 21 appearances, seven of them starts. Cameron Friess, yet another recruit out of Katy, Texas and Katy High School, hit .368 in 19 at-bats. And finally, there’s Granger Studdard out of Buda, Texas. Despite a late-season skid, Studdard posted an impressive freshman season, hitting .270 with a team-leading six homers and 35 RBI, second on the team only to Mattlage. And really all you need to know is that this freshman has already made such a big impact that he now has his own hashtag on Twitter. If you follow Texas State baseball, you’ve surely seen it at least once–#GrangerDanger.

There are a lot of things to be excited about with this Bobcat baseball program. The futures look bright for Bein, Studdard, Friess and all the other freshmen. Humpal is set to return and anchor the weekend rotation. Geisler has emerged as both a solid reliever out of the bullpen and a great bat to have in the lineup. And if you’re skeptical because of the mediocre record, take note–nine of the Bobcats’ 28 losses came to teams gracing the Top 25 polls in college baseball. And in many of those games, Texas State was in it to the end, with every chance to come back and win the game. While they didn’t win most of those games, that’s sometimes a by-product of having so many young players having such an integral role on the team. You simply have to learn how to win those games, and that comes with experience. So while Texas State may be losing key players such as Lemke and O’Neal to graduation and possibly Mattlage and Williams to the MLB draft, fear not Bobcat fans. This young team has gotten baptized by fire at times this season, but that experience will pay off down the road and help them mentor future recruiting classes. And if at this point you doubt Ty Harrington’s ability to recruit and reload, then woe be to you and your unfaithful soul.