SAN MARCOS, Texas (4/2/23) – Brandon Hager homered twice, but it was not enough to lift the Arkansas State baseball team past Texas State, as the Bobcats held off a ninth-inning A-State rally for 7-6 series-clinching decision Sunday at Bobcat Ballpark.
The Red Wolves (9-16, 1-6 SBC) trailed by two runs entering the ninth, with Hager's second solo blast pulling them within one, but the Bobcats (19-9, 5-4) forced a groundout and a strikeout to end the threat.
Hager scored three times in his 2-for-3 day and walked twice, becoming the first A-State hitter to go deep twice in a contest since Ben Klutts on April 30, 2022, at UT Arlington. Wil French and Daedrick Cail each tallied two hits, with Cail driving in three runs and homering.
A-State out-hit the Bobcats 10-4, but four of Texas State's seven runs came on a pair of long balls.
Texas State surged to a 5-0 lead with a two-run second followed by three more in the third on a homer by Cade Manning, who went 2-for-3 with two runs. The Red Wolves responded with four unanswered to pull within a run after five.
In the fourth inning, Cail put the Scarlet and Black on the board with his first home run of the season, a two-out shot to left-center field on the first pitch of the at-bat. A pinch-hit RBI single by Cason Tollett plated French, followed by an RBI single by Cail to score Hager.
The hosts added a run in the sixth when Chase Mora touched home on a double-play ball in the bottom of the sixth, but A-State promptly answered in the top of the seventh with the first of two Hager home runs – a solo blast to left-center.
Mora homered in the eighth to put the score at 7-5, but Hager sent a 0-2 pitch well over the left-field wall off Bobcat reliever Jack Stroud, who pitched the ninth to earn the save.
NEXT UP
A-State returns to action Tuesday, facing in-state foe Arkansas. First pitch against the sixth-ranked Razorbacks at Baum-Walker Stadium is slated for 6 p.m. on SEC Network+. The radio broadcast can be heard on The Ticket Radio Network stations 95.3, 96.9 and 970 AM in Jonesboro, as well as online at 953theticket.com.
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