Bears even series with Tx State
Solid defense helped sophomore Jeremy Cloud secure his second complete game win of the season Saturday at Bear Field. The 5-2 win gives the Bears a chance to win the series on Sunday against Texas State, who came in second in the West Divison.
Cloud scattered the nine hits over the nine innings. He only gave up a single earned run. The run scored in the second by the Bobcats was on an errant throw into left field trying to catch Aaron Garsa stealing third.
"He’s given us a big lift," head coach Doug Clark said. "Our pitching was struggling so much, andwe needed somebody. Moving Pritchett to Friday and then Cloud stepping in and doing the job has really settled things down for us."
The defense helped get Cloud out of a couple jams late in the game. Shortstop Jonathan Ashworth dove to his right, stopped the grounder and threw to second from his knees in time to get a runner in the 7th.
"That was huge," Clark said.
Then just an inning later with the Bobcats trying to rally after singles from there three and four batters in the lineup, Cloud got a soft chopper to Craig Nyborg at third. Nyborg stepped on third and threw to second to couple the double play. The effects were immediate as the following hitter singled to right, what would have likely scored one of those that were thrown out. Cloud then got a pop-out to end the inning with runners stranded on the corners.
"Double plays are a pitchers best friend," Clark said, "and we got a break there."
Texas State left eight runners on throughout the game. But Cloud didn’t even allow an opportunity for that in the ninth. He faced just three batters and the ball never left the infield.
"When they hand the ball back to you at the end of the game, that’s a nice feeling," Clark said about Cloud completing the game.
The scoring for the Bears came in spurts.
Texas State entered the series with what had been a solid pitching staff, but the Bears were able to get some offensive power in the form of 3 doubles and a homer Saturday.
Down 1-0 in the fourth, the Bears took advantage of a walk to Kent Taylor to lead off the inning.
After a sac bunt moved Taylor to second, Chris Davis’ at bat was a strange one. I don’t remember the count during all of this, but Davis pulled a ball right down the third base line passed the fielder for what might have been a game-tying double. The fans thought the ball was fair, but the third base ump called it foul.
Davis made his way back to the box, and then jumped on a pitch and drove it easily over the left field wall, very high. Again, the fans thought the ball was fair, but the third base ump called it foul. Clark took exception to this one and had a brief discussion with the umpire who was jogging toward the fence as the ball crossed the foul pole.
"I’ll probably go to my grave thinking that’s a home run," Clark said. "That ball went 150 feet past the pole, well naturally it’s going to go foul because it’s curving. But I bet you that if we had a big league foul pole that goes up 100 feet that that would have gone right around it. I bet you.
"First of all I don’t think you go closer. I think the farther you get back [the easier it is to see]. I’ll bet you [the home plate umpire] had a better view."
Davis, obviously seeing and hitting the ball well, finally put the ball in play without a doubt. This time it was a double to left-center that scored Taylor.
With two outs, Graham Martin hit a very similar shot to left-center to score Davis and give the Bears a 2-1 lead.
"We scored the two runs. It didn’t kill us, but boy we had to earn them."
Cloud gave up his final run of the game in the top of the fifth, but the Bears took the lead for good in the bottom on Chris Houk’s two-run double.
Matt Warren finished off the scoring with a no-doubter in the seventh, his 11th on the season.
"With two strikes, the ball was up," Clark said about the homer. "He’s such a competitor. You talk about a guy we’re going to miss. He just lives to hit. We’re going to miss him a lot. He’s going to be a record-setter for us."
Clark was referring to the school-record of 12 homers in a season.
The Bears will start senior Matt Whitaker on Sunday.
"Whitaker’s pitched better the last two outings. Hopefully he can give us 6 or 7 innings and can command that fast ball because that breaking ball is an out pitch. It’s nice to have a Whitaker on a Sunday."