Category Archives: College baseball

Arkansas holds off Ole Miss, 3-2, to stay in the CWS title hunt

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Arkansas junior Zack Morris, pitching in relief in a harrowing ninth inning, shut down an Ole Miss rally Wednesday night as the Razorbacks held on to beat the Rebels 3-2 at the College World Series.

“Everyone in the dugout had faith in him,” Arkansas starting pitcher Hagen Smith said in a post-game interview with reporters on-site in Omaha, Neb. “Nerves were high. But we knew he was going to get out of it.”

By claiming the victory, the Razorbacks forced a deciding game Thursday against the Rebels, with the winner advancing to play the Oklahoma Sooners in the championship round.

The best-of-three championship round will start on Saturday night. Earlier Wednesday, Oklahoma earned the right to play for the title by beating the Texas A&M Aggies.

In the night game, the Razorbacks took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth, only to see the Rebels open the frame by loading the bases with a single and two straight batters hit by pitch.

Morris entered the game in relief at that juncture and struck out Hayden Leatherwood.

The next batter, TJ McCants, flied out. One out away from a loss, the Rebels found life when Justin Bench’s RBI single drove in a run.

The ball was hit into the hole between third and short. Gliding toward his right, Arkansas shortstop Jalen Battles gloved it and kept it from going into the outfield, which likely prevented a second run — the tying run — from scoring.

At the same time, the San Antonio Madison High School alumnus had no other play to make after fielding the ball, and so the bases remained loaded.

Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez was up next, with the game hanging in the balance. Arkansas was one out away from winning, but it also remained a possibility that a two-run single could end its season.

Gonzalez swung and struck the ball well. Slicing into left field, it was caught by Zack Gregory for the last out.

“Zack (Morris) has been clutch for us all year,” Arkansas designated hitter Brady Slavens said. “He’s done a great job. We all had faith in him. We all had belief in him. You know, he didn’t have the best start the other day. But he came out and proved himself tonight.”

With the teams tied in the early innings, Slavens’ 436-foot solo home run to center field in the top of the fifth staked Arkansas to a 2-1 lead.

“I guess I was just looking for a fastball over the plate,” Slavens said. “Luckily I got it. It might be the farthest home run I’ve ever hit. I don’t know. Not sure.”

In the deciding game, Ole Miss is expected to start ace Dylan DeLucia, who beat Auburn on the second day of the tournament last Saturday.

“We’re going to have to really fight,” Slavens said. “It’s going to take all of us to win.”

Oklahoma wins 5-1 to oust Texas A&M from the College World Series

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The Oklahoma Sooners advanced to the championship round of the College World Series Wednesday afternoon with a 5-1 victory over the Texas A&M Aggies in Omaha, Neb.

Jimmy Crooks helped the Sooners start fast by belting a three-run homer in the first inning. After that, right-handed pitcher David Sandlin dominated the Aggies, ousting them from the CWS with a powerful seven-inning performance.

Sandlin yielded only a run on five hits and struck out 12. The only run for A&M came in the sixth on a solo homer by former UTSA standout Dylan Rock.

It wasn’t nearly enough for the Aggies, as the Sooners moved on to the title round. Oklahoma will play either Ole Miss or Arkansas on Sunday to open a best-of-three set for the national title.

A&M will transition into the offseason coming off perhaps the best season in school history. In coach Jim Schlossnagle’s first year as coach, A&M finished 44-20.

The Aggies picked up momentum during Southeastern Conference play, claiming consecutive series victories over Kentucky, Georgia, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

Entering the NCAA tournament as the No. 5 overall seed, the Aggies won the College Station regional when they swept to three straight victories, knocking off Oral Roberts, Louisiana and TCU.

In the Super Regionals, also played in College Station, A&M claimed a pair of one-run victories over the Louisville Cardinals to take a five-game winning streak into the CWS.

The streak ended last Friday on opening day in Omaha, as the Sooners knocked out Aggies’ starter Nathan Dettmer early in a 13-8 victory.

Undeterred, A&M moved into the losers bracket and domintated Texas 10-2 before beating Notre Dame 5-1.

Against the Irish, Dettmer, from San Antonio’s Johnson High School, pitched seven shutout innings in the historic win, as it was the first time in school history that the Aggies had won two games in one CWS.

The win sent them to the semifinals, where they needed two straight victories over the Sooners to advance. Sandlin and the OU bullpen just didn’t let it happen. The Sooners limited the Aggies to only six hits.

A&M outfielder Jordan Thompson, a junior from Boerne Champion, enjoyed a standout CWS. In four games, he finished four for 10 at the plate with five RBIs. He also walked four times and stole two bases.

The Sooners didn’t let Thompson get going on Wednesday, though, as they held him hitless in three at bats.

Dettmer pitches Texas A&M into the semifinals at the College World Series

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The Texas A&M Aggies will play another day in Omaha at the College World Series, thanks in large part to San Antonio’s Nathan Dettmer.

Dettmer started and pitched seven scoreless innings Tuesday as A&M eliminated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 5-1.

As a result, the Aggies will move into the semifinals of the CWS to meet the Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners and Aggies will play at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

OU can advance to the championship round with a victory. The Aggies will need to win twice against the Sooners to play for the national title.

The Sooners (2-0 in the CWS) beat the Aggies (2-1) by a 13-8 score last Friday in the tournament opener.

Against OU, Dettmer started but didn’t make it through the second inning.

Even though he has struggled over the past five weeks, he settled down and pitched his best game of the season against the Irish.

The 6-foot-4, righthander, who played in high school at San Antonio Johnson, allowed only three hits, did not walk a batter and struck out six.

“I’m feeling great right now,” Dettmer told Michella Chester, a reporter for NCAA Digital. “It’s a great relief to have such success on … one of the greatest baseball stages in the world. It felt great.”

For Dettmer, it was quite a change of fortune. Over his last seven starts, he had pitched 20 innnings, yielding 33 hits and 28 earned runs.

Against OU, Dettmer was pulled after 1 and 2/3 innings. The Sooners had roughed him up badly. He was charged with giving up seven earned runs.

Chester asked Dettmer, “What turned it around?”

“I trusted myself,” he said. “All I had to do was believe in myself. My teammates believed in me. My coaches believed in me. I just had to believe in myself.

“It was all up here,” he added, pointing to his head.

“I just did it today. It was me and (catcher) Troy (Claunch) working the whole time. It felt great.”

What was working for him?

“Honestly, everything. I don’t want to seem cocky. But I felt like I could throw any pitch in any count. Just to have that confidence and to have my catcher working with me, it felt amazing.”

Dettmer said it felt good that coach Jim Schlossnagle would turn to him at such an important juncture in the season.

“To feel that confidence — I really felt it,” he said. “It showed up. It worked.”

Chester asked Dettmer about the days in the aftermath of his last start and what he was experiencing.

“It felt like forever,” he said. “That one game, when I got pulled, it felt like a 20-inning game. I felt so small. But (for the coach) to have that confidence (in me) it felt amazing.”

Notable

The Aggies have won multiple games at a College World Series for the first time in seven trips, according to the school’s website. Their two victories (over Texas and Notre Dame) matches their total from the program’s previous six trips to Omaha.

A&M capitalized on Notre Dame mistakes, including a balk and a throwing error, to take a 3-0 lead in the third inning. In the fifth inning, a Trevor Werner leadoff homer highlighted a two-run rally as the Aggies opened a 5-0 lead.

Jordan Thompson, a Texas A&M junior from Boerne Champion, reached base twice on a walk and a hit against the Irish, increasing his on-base total in three CWS games to nine.

Against Notre Dame, he went 1 for 3 and scored a run. He was 2 for 2 and scored twice and drove in two runs in a 10-2 victory over Texas on Sunday. Thompson was 1 for 2 and clubbed a three-run homer in the Aggies’ 13-8 loss to OU last Friday.

Coming up

Wednesday — (CWS semifinals) Texas A&M (2-1) vs. Oklahoma (2-0). Also, Arkansas (2-1) vs. Ole Miss (2-0). To advance to the title round, both Oklahoma and Ole Miss can advance with a single victory, while both A&M and Arkansas need to win twice.

Former Champion standout sparks A&M’s offense at the College World Series

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A former standout at Boerne Champion High School leads the Texas A&M Aggies in runs batted in through two games at the College World Series. In his first trip to Omaha, Jordan Thompson has rung up five RBIs, and that only tells part of the story.

Jordan Thompson playing for the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio during the 2020 Texas Collegiate League season. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jordan Thompson played locally for Boerne Champion High School and for the 2020 Flying Chanclas de San Antonio. — Photo by Joe Alexander

Pitchers facing the A&M sparkplug near the bottom of the batting order simply can’t get him out. Combining his performances in an opening loss to Oklahoma and a victory over Texas, the 6-foot, 175-pound firebrand has been on base seven times.

As the Aggies prepare to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Tuesday in Omaha, with both teams 1-1 and facing elimination, the season for Thompson and his teammates could hinge, at least in part, on whether they can stay committed to the team’s approach on offense.

In other words, don’t try to be a hero and inadvertantly swing at pitches out of the strike zone. Try to work the opponent into a hitter’s count. Thompson described the team’s approach after A&M’s 10-2 victory over Texas on Sunday.

“Me and my teammates have had the same approach all season,” he said in a video posted on A&M’s website. “We just keep going, one pitch at a time. If we get a hit, great. If we don’t, (try to) put a lot of pitches on the pitcher. Make him make pitches, and just pass the bat along to the guy behind you and have trust in them.”

Thompson’s showing in the CWS thus far epitomizes his own commitment to the team concept.

Not only has he stroked three hits in two games, including a three-run home run in a 13-8 loss to Oklahoma last Friday, he has been hit by a pitch once and has walked three times. Against Texas, Thompson reached base at a 100-percent clip — four for four.

In the second inning, he stroked an RBI single and later scored. In the decisive four-run fourth, he opened it with a double and, once again, ended up scoring. Coming up again in the fifth, Thompson walked and was erased on a force play. Later, in the seventh, he walked again.

With two out, he took first base, putting runners at the corners against UT reliever Zane Morehouse. The Aggies promptly turned it into a double steal and a run, with Thompson taking second and Ryan Targac coming home to make it 9-2.

For the fans, it wasn’t like the electicity-inducing, three-run homer Thompson delivered early against Oklahoma. But it was just the type of thing a teams needs if it wants to stay alive in the NCAA tournament at this point in the season.

Boerne state of mind: A&M’s Thompson, UT’s Hodo to play in the College World Series

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The San Antonio area and the state of Texas will be represented in both games on opening day of the College World Series. Oklahoma will take on the Texas A&M Aggies on Friday at 1 p.m., followed in the night game by the Texas Longhorns against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at 6.

Expected starters in the center field for both the Aggies and the Longhorns are names familiar to fans in Boerne, a baseball hotbed north of San Antonio.

Jordan Thompson, a former standout with the Boerne Champion High School Chargers, plays center for the Aggies. Douglas Hodo III, formerly of the Boerne High Greyhounds, patrols center and bats leadoff for the Longhorns.

On Saturday, former San Antonio Madison High School multi-sport standout Jalen Battles is expected to start at shortstop for the Arkansas Razorbacks. Stanford will meet Arkansas in the first game at 1 p.m. In the 6 p.m. slot, Ole Miss will take on Auburn.

Both Thompson and Battles were teammates in 2020 for the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio. The Chanclas played that summer in the Texas Collegiate League. They were a team made up largely of players from the San Antonio area looking to stay sharp in the first summer of the Covid-19 pandemic.

For Hodo, it is his second straight trip to the CWS. Last year, he played right field for the Longhorns, who finished with a 3-2 record and in a tie for third place in the tournament. This season, Hodo hit for a .319 average, with 25 doubles and 10 home runs. Both Thompson (.245) and Battles (.293) are making their CWS debuts.

Besides Thompson, Texas A&M will have another San Antonio connection in left fielder Dylan Rock, who played four seasons for the UTSA Roadrunners through 2021 before transferring to play as a grad student this year under first-year A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle. Rock has been a mainstay in the middle of the Aggies’ lineup, hitting .332 with 18 home runs.

College World Series
Friday through June 26, at Charles Schwab Stadium, in Omaha, Nebraska.

Friday’s schedule

Oklahoma vs. Texas A&M, 1 p.m.
Texas vs. Notre Dame, 6 p.m.

Saturday’s schedule

Stanford vs. Arkansas, 1 p.m.
Ole Miss vs. Auburn, 6 p.m.

San Antonio ties

Players from the San Antonio area on rosters of teams that have clinched berths in the College World Series:

Texas A&M

Rody Barker, OF-C, graduate transfer from Kerrville Tivy, New Mexico Junior College. Barker played eight games and batted .200.

Nathan Dettmer, pitcher, sophomore from Johnson. Dettmer has appeared in 17 games, all starts. He has fashioned a 5-2 record, with a 4.75 ERA.

Alex Magers, pitcher, sophomore from Dโ€™Hanis. Magers has appeared in eight games, all out of the bullpen. He has a 5.59 ERA.

Austin Stracener, INF, freshman from New Braunfels Canyon. Stracener played in six games. He hit .250.

Jordan Thompson, OF, junior from Boerne Champion, Incarnate Word, Grayson College. Thompson hit .245 in 43 games. He delivered five home runs and 26 RBIs. With a starter’s role in the playoffs, Thompson has belted two home runs.

Texas

Douglas Hodo III, center field, a redshirt sophomore from Boerne. Hodo played 67 games and hit .319. A power threat, he also contributed 10 home runs and 25 doubles.

Travis Sthele, pitcher, redshirt freshman from Reagan. Sthele made 21 appearances and started three games. In fashioning a 3-1 record and a 6.03 ERA, he struck out 32 and walked 19 in 34 and 1/3 innings.

Sam Walbridge, pitcher, redshirt sophomore from Saint Maryโ€™s Hall. Walbridge has made three appearances, pitching 1 and 1/3 innings with a 0.00 ERA.

Arkansas

Jalen Battles, shortstop, a senior from Madison High School, McLennan Community College. Battles has started for two straight years, narrowly missing out on the CWS last year when his No. 1-ranked teammates lost in the super regionls. He is a .293 hitter with 10 homers and 44 RBI.

Stanford rallies in the ninth inning to end Texas State’s season

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Texas State relief pitcher Tristan Stivors, a senior from Medina Valley High School, pitching against UTSA at Roadrunner Field on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. - photo by Joe Alexander

Tristan Stivors, Texas State’s All-American closer, started and pitched seven innings against Stanford. He gave up one run in a masterful performance, only to see his team let a late lead slip away. Here, he is shown pitching on April 26 at UTSA. – Photo by Joe Alexander

A record-breaking baseball season for the Texas State Bobcats came to a heartbreaking end Monday night in California. Leading by two runs going into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Bobcats couldn’t hold on.

The home-team Stanford Cardinal scored three runs in their last at-bat and escaped with a 4-3 victory to claim the championship of the NCAA tournament’s Stanford regional.

Stanford coach David Esquer called it a “miracle” finish. Texas State coach Steven Trout said he thought it was “an unreal” game.

“Last game of regionals, we pushed it to the brink,” Trout told reporters at the game site in Palo Alto, Calif. “Obviously thought we had it, going up 3-1. I mean, you got to tip your hat. They took some great swings in some big moments … That’s why they’re the No. 2 team in the country.

“Just couldn’t be more proud of my guys.”

With the victory, Stanford (45-15) advanced to the Super Regionals. The Cardinal, the No. 2 seed in the 64-team NCAA field, will host the Connecticut Huskies this weekend in a best-of-three series.

The Bobcats (47-14) likely will lament the lost opportunity for some time.

Texas State, frustrated with an inability to hit with runners on base for most of the evening, finally put it together in the top of the ninth.

They broke a tie and took a 3-1 lead when Wesley Faison ripped a two-run single off Stanford reliever Braden Montgomery.

Moving to the bottom of the ninth, they were three outs away from their first regional title and their first Super Regional, which would have been held on their home field in San Marcos.

But just as their vocal fans in attendance started to think about winning on the home field of one of the nation’s most storied programs, the lead slipped away. Stanford sophomore Drew Bowser opened the inning with a solo homer to left field.

Duly inspired, sophomore Tommy Troy followed with another solo blast, this one to deep center. Centerfielder Isaiah Ortega-Jones leaped for the ball, but couldn’t reach it. Just like that, the Cardinal had tied the game, 3-3.

At that point, Texas State pulled reliever Zeke Wood, who gave up both homers. Levi Wells entered to try and put out the fire, only to have Eddie Park greet him with a single — his fourth hit of the night.

Park moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt, which prompted Texas State to walk Brock Jones intentionally. With runners at first and second, a double play could have ended the inning. But it wasn’t to be.

As freshman Trevor Haskins entered the game as a pinch-hitter, Wells threw a wild pitch, allowing runners to move up to second and third. Wells appeared to hang a slider, and Haskins stroked it to left for a single, which scored Park with the winning run.

“A lot of respect for Texas State,” Stanford coach David Esquer said. “What a quality team. Obviously it went right down to the very end. They were unbelievably good and tough on us. We had to dig down deep for a miracle there at the end.”

Records

Texas State 47-14
Stanford 45-15

Notable

Texas State finished with a school-record 47 victories and won the regular-season title in the Sun Belt Conference.

The Bobcats entered the NCAA tournament ranked second in the Stanford regional and opened Friday with a 7-3 victory over UC Santa Barbara. They followed Saturday night by matching up against the home team and claiming a 5-2 victory, which snapped a 17-game winning streak by the Cardinal.

Not only was it the first 2-0 start for the Bobcats in a regional, it put them in position to close out with the regional title on Sunday night.

Stanford didn’t let that happen. The Cardinal won an elimination game against UC Santa Barbara, 8-4, on Sunday afternoon. A few hours later, they took on Texas State for the second straight night and won — again by an 8-4 score.

In the winner-take-all game Monday, Trout flipped the script with his pitching. He elected to start All-American closer Tristan Stivors, who responded with a dazzling performance.

Stivors, a senior from San Antonio-area Medina Valley High School, toiled for seven innings and held the powerful Cardinal in check. In a 101-pitch drama, he gave up one run on eight hits. Stivors struck out nine and walked one.

Trout said he was looking for two or three innings from Stivors, who led the nation with 18 saves this year.

“For us, it was mainly, just get off to a good start, whatever that looked like,” Trout said. “You know, just kind of watch his stuff and how they reacted to it. He just kept pounding it in there. When we finally got out (to see him) in the seventh, he was losing a little bit (of his stuff), and I was going to pull him for the lefty, and he looked at me and said, ‘Don’t take me out.’ That’s just who he is.

“I hope the kid pitches in the big leagues, because he has the stuff, he has the guts to do it.”

While Stivors was making big pitches, a cadre of Cardinal pitchers were doing the same. Texas State finished the game with 10 hits but left 11 runners stranded. With runners on base, the Bobcats were 4 for 20. With runners in scoring position, they were 2 for 13.

Stanford used six pitchers on the night.

Joey Dixon started, followed by Max Meier, Drew Dowd, Ryan Bruno, Braden Montgomery and Brandt Pancer.

“I’m so proud of that pitching staff,” Esquer said. “Drew Dowd, who went as long as anybody, 2 and 1/3 (innings). From Dixon to Meier to Bruno, who pitched for the third day in a row. Montgomery, we pull (him) out of right field. What a lot to ask of him, to go two innings for the first time in a long time.

“No blame on what he did for us. And then Brandt Pancer obviously coming in, and getting that last out in the ninth. Just proud of this team.”

‘Batman’ powers Stanford past Texas State in NCAA baseball

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Who was that masked man?

Why, it was Stanford University slugger Carter Graham, who celebrated each of his two home runs Sunday night by rounding the bases and then briefly donning a ‘Batman’ mask as he high-fived his way through teammates en route to the team dugout.

The reason for the invocation of the ‘Dark Knight’ into an NCAA tournament game against the Texas State Bobcats wasn’t entirely clear.

But as the game moved along, it became evident that the top-seeded Cardinal were not about to allow the Bobcats to play ‘The Joker’ and eliminate them from the playoffs. Not in an NCAA regional on their home field in Palo Alto, Calif.

Beaten by the second-seeded Bobcats on Saturday night, the Cardinal responded on Sunday by winning twice, once against UC Santa Barbara in the afternoon and then again against the Bobcats on Sunday night, both of them by scores of 8-4.

As a result, they ruined Texas State’s dream of a victory that would have clinched the school’s first title in a four-team NCAA baseball regional. Now, the same two teams will meet again Monday at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond in a winner-take-all for the championship.

The Bobcats raced off to a fast start, with Jose Gonzalez stroking a solo homer in the first inning for an early lead. It was Gonzalez’s third home run in the regional after hitting two in a 5-2 victory over the Cardinal on Saturday.

But Graham, not to be outdone, responded with a soaring two-run blast of his own in the bottom of the first for a 2-1 advantage. He added a three-run shot in the fourth inning, boosting the Cardinal into a 5-2 lead.

After the Bobcats scored single runs in the fifth and sixth to pull within one run, Drew Bowser hit a two-run homer in a three-run seventh, an uprising that seemed to take the starch out of the visitors from San Marcos, Texas.

Stanford’s offense was just too relentless to contain.

Not only did the Cardinal hit the ball over the fence three times, but they also sprayed line-drive singles to the outfield. They even scored on a squeeze bunt single by Adam Crampton that brought a runner in from third.

In all, the Cardinal produced 13 hits to only four for the Bobcats. Stanford pitchers Ty Uber (4-1), Brandt Pancer and Ryan Bruno combined for eight walks and seven strikeouts. Texas State starter Tony Robie (4-1) took the loss.

Robie pitched 4 and 1/3 innings and gave up five runs on eight hits. Offensively, the Bobcats were sparked by home runs from both Gonzalez and from San Antonio’s Dalton Shuffield, a senior from Johnson High School.

Records

Texas State 47-13
Stanford 44-15

Coming up

Monday — Stanford regional title game between Texas State and Stanford, 9 p.m.

Quotable

Texas State coach Steve Trout said: “You have to give credit to Stanford. They made some really big swings in big moments and did a good job with their arms as well. As I told the team, we are over it. This is the beauty of being in the winner’s bracket. You get to come back tomorrow and play one game to move onto the Super Regional.”

Texas State upsets Stanford and inches closer to an NCAA regional title

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Another night, another milestone for the Texas State Bobcats’ baseball team. The Bobcats hit three home runs Saturday in a 5-2 NCAA tournament victory over Stanford, which snapped the Cardinal’s 17-game winning streak.

Jose Gonzalez ripped two homers and Wesley Faison added another as the Bobcats upended the top-seeded team on its home field in the Palo Alto regional.

More importantly, the second-seeded Bobcats improved to 2-0 in the tournament and moved to within one victory of the regional title.

On Sunday, third-seeded UC Santa Barbara and Stanford will play the first game of the day. It’s an elimination game, with the loser going home. The winner will meet the Bobcats on Sunday night. If the Bobcats win, they would claim their first regional crown.

If they lose, the same teams would play again on Monday to decide which team advances to the Super Regional round.

Levi Wells, a sophomore from La Porte, pitched seven innings and allowed two runs to earn the victory. Finishing on the back end was Tristan Stivors, from San Antonio area Medina Valley High School, who worked the last two innings for his national-best 18th save.

In the past few weeks, the Bobcats have strung together some impressive team accomplishments. They won the regular-season title in the Sun Belt Conference. They set a school record for victories in a season, which is now at 47.

On Friday, they hit two home runs and cruised to a 7-3 victory over UC Santa Barbara.

In beating Stanford on Saturday, the Bobcats may have topped everything. The Cardinal entered the NCAA tournament as the No. 2 overall seed in the 64-team field. Stanford hadn’t lost a game since May 1 at Washington, and yet the the Bobcats won and opened an NCAA tournament regional at 2-0 for the first time.

This is Texas State’s sixth trip to the NCAAs, and its first since 2011.

Records

Texas State 47-12
Stanford 42-15

Coming up

Sunday — UC Santa Barbara vs. Stanford, 3 p.m. UC Santa Barbara-Stanford winner vs. Texas State, 9 p.m.

Monday — Championship game, if necessary, TBD.

Notable

Gonzalez stepped to the plate in the bottom of the first and blasted a solo home run, pulling it over the right field wall, for a 1-0 Texas State lead. After Stanford tied the game with a run in the second inning, the Bobcats retaliated in the fourth. First, Gonzalez led off with a solo shot to the opposite field in left. His blow made it 2-1 Texas State. Next, Justin Thompson doubled down the line. Faison, the next batter up, ripped a two-run shot to make it 4-1.

Quotable

Asked jokingly by an ESPN commentator what he had to eat before the game, Gonzalez said he had rice and beans at a San Francisco restaurant. “I was pretty disappointed with myself yesterday,” he said. “I felt like I was trying to do too much a little bit. I just had to go back to .. what got me to this point now. Seeing the ball deep and being able to react and hit the pitches, you know.”

Texas State powers past UC Santa Barbara 7-3 in NCAA tournament opener

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The Texas State Bobcats returned to the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time in 11 years Friday night, and they made the most of the opportunity with a 7-3 victory over the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos at Palo Alto, Calif.

Playing in the Palo Alto regional, on tree-lined Klein Field at Sunken Diamond, the Bobcats scored four runs in the fourth inning to take the lead for good against the Gauchos. The big blow in the inning was a three-run home run by Peyton Lewis.

Ben McClain hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning for a 6-3 lead. It was Texas State’s 82nd home run of the season, and it sailed high over the trees in right center. Lewis walked with the bases loaded in the seventh to make it 7-3, earning his fourth RBI on the night.

Zeke Wood, Triston Dixon and Austin Smith combined to hold the Gauchos to six hits. Wood, a 6-foot-4, righthander, pitched six innings to earn the victory. He improved to 7-1. Smith worked the final 2 and 2/3 innings to pick up the save.

Saddled with his first loss of the season, UC Santa Barbara starting pitcher Cory Lewis dropped to 9-1. He was roughed up for four runs on four hits in five innings.

With the victory, the Bobcats moved along in the winners bracket of the double-elimination tournament, set to meet the powerful Stanford Cardinal on Saturday — on the Cardinal’s home field.

Stanford, on a 17-game winning streak after a 20-7 victory over Binghamton, N.Y., is the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and the top seed in the regional. Texas State is the second seed in the regional.

Three-seed UC Santa Barbara will play four seed Binghamton, from Vestal, N.Y., in the losers bracket.

Records

Texas State 46-12
UC Santa Barbara 43-13

Coming up

Saturday — Binghamton vs. UC Santa Barbara (losers bracket), time TBD; Texas State vs. Stanford (winners bracket), 9 p.m.

Notable

One of the plays of the game came in the bottom of the third when Dalton Shuffield, a Texas State senior from San Antonio’s Johnson High School, hit a drive to the outfield wall that was caught on the run by UC Santa Barbara centerfielder Nick Vogt.

In the eighth inning, Shuffield walked and took second on a wild pitch but then was picked off for the second out. Shuffield, the Sun Belt Conference’s player of the year, went one for three in the game.

Because of Austin Smith’s strong performance to finish the game in relief, Tristan Stivors, the national leader in saves with 17, did not pitch for the Bobcats. Stivors, a first-team, All American by Collegiate Baseball magazine, is from San Antonio-area Medina Valley High School.

A&M’s Jordan Thompson makes a memory in the College Station regional

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Jordan Thompson likely will always remember his first at bat in the NCAA baseball tournament.

The former standout at Boerne Champion High School hit a two-run homer in the second inning Friday to help ignite the Texas A&M Aggies in an 8-2 victory over the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.

Thompson, a San Antonio native, added a single to give him two hits in the opening game of the College Station regional.

Jordan Thompson playing for the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio during the 2020 Texas Collegiate League season. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jordan Thompson playing for the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio during the 2020 Texas Collegiate League season. – Photo by Joe Alexander

At 6 feet and 175 pounds, Thompson packs quite a wallop with his bat, and he proved that in the bottom of the second. With the Aggies trailing 1-0, Brett Minnich hit a double to get A&M started.

Thompson then unloaded with a blast that carried over the left field wall.

Playing their first NCAA game under first-year coach Jim Schlossnagle, the Aggies made it 3-1 in the fifth inning and then 6-1 in the seventh on Austin Bost’s three-run homer.

In a two-run eighth for the Aggies, Thompson struck again. He singled and eventually scored on a Jack Moss’ double. All told, Thompson finished his day two for four, with two runs scored and two RBI.

Not bad for a player that wasn’t heavily-recruited out of high school.

Thompson played as a freshman at the University of the Incarnate Word. He moved on in his sophomore year to toil at Grayson College. With the season cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic, Thompson looked for his next opportunity and found it with the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio.

So, in the summer of 2020, with much of the nation locked down in quarantine, he played with the Chanclas in the Texas Collegiate League to hone his skills and to prepare for his first season with the Aggies.

โ€œMy journey to get (to A&M) was a little unconventional, but itโ€™s my journey, and I wouldnโ€™t change it for the world,โ€ he told The JB Replay on the eve of the TCL season. โ€œGoing from UIW, a coaching staff change, leaving to go to Grayson, then going on to Texas A&M, I love my story.

Jordan Thompson playing for the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio during the 2020 Texas Collegiate League season. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jordan Thompson takes a big swing at a pitch in 2020 with the Flying Chanclas. For fans in San Antonio at Wolff Stadium, the Chanclas were the only show in town that summer after officials canceled all levels of affiliated professional ball at the minor-league level. – Photo by Joe Alexander

“Iโ€™m just really excited to be where I want to be. Itโ€™s every kidโ€™s dream to go to a Power 5 conference, (to) Texas A&M especially.โ€

Thompson has seen it all in terms of the business of college baseball.

He has experienced two coaching changes. In 2019, after his freshman year at UIW, coach Pat Hallmark left to take a new job with the UTSA Roadrunners. At the end of the 2021 season, just as Thompson won the Wally Moon Award as the Aggies’ most improved player, his world was rocked again.

Rob Childress, the coach who brought him to College Station, was dismissed and Schlossnagle was hired.

With the former head coach at TCU now in charge in Aggieland, Thompson didn’t flinch. He adapted to the change, stayed with it and played in 39 of the Aggies’ 56 games this season, starting 28 of them. Thompson hit a modest .253 with four home runs and 22 RBIs.

But, as Oral Roberts now knows, one of the smallest players on the A&M squad can play at the major college level, and he can achieve on the big stage of the NCAA tournament.

“He has been the ultimate team guy and ready to perform when called upon,” Schlossnagle told reporters on the eve of the regional. “That’s how you put together special seasons.”

Jordan Thompson playing for the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio during the 2020 Texas Collegiate League season. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jordan Thompson played outfield for a Flying Chanclas team that included the likes Kite McDonald (from Antonian and Mississippi State) and Porter Brown (from Reagan and TCU). – Photo by Joe Alexander