The 2022 Texas State baseball team has had a historical season, earning their highest rank ever in D1 baseball, rank number 17. Texas State also defeated the number one seed, the Texas Longhorns, which garnered them a lot of attention from college baseball fans around the country. The team has put in a great amount of effort this season so that they could achieve all the success they have worked so hard for.
The Bobcats have a current record of 35-11 for the entire season, and their record for the Sun Belt conference is 17-4. In the conference, they have only lost a total of four games and those losses were to Georgia Southern, two times, once to Coastal Carolina and one more time to South Alabama. The team has yet to play Louisiana, ULM, and Georgia State for the conference games the final season record is not known yet.
Texas State has had great success at the plate this season, with two players, John Wuthrich and Dalton Shuffield, reaching double digit home runs. A Texas State player has not achieved double digit home runs since the 2015 season. Wuthrich, with 10 home runs, and Shuffield, with 12, are a couple of the leading batters this season. Shuffield has also become the “Bobcats’ all-time leader in triples” this year according to the Bobcat’s Instagram account.
“This is my fifth year, so it is nice to know we are ending my career with such a good season. Coming into the season we knew we had a chance to have a great year, but you never truly know how the team will handle a long season until it is actually time,” said senior player, John Wuthrich.
One of the most exciting moments of the season for many of the players was when the Bobcats beat the Longhorns, who were the number one team in college baseball. The Bobcats lost the first of the two-game series 8-9, but came back the next night to win 6-4 at Austin’s home field.
During that game, Wuthrich was the star offensive player with one home run and three RBIs. For pitching, the Texas State coaches brought out senior pitcher, Tristan Stivors, to close the game. He threw against a total of four batters in the ninth inning, and closed the game with three strikeouts.
“The energy in the crowd during the UT game was incredible. Everyone was having so much fun and were so hyped up for the team. There was a lot of cheering and heckling from the crowd throughout the game which was pretty entertaining. It was one of the funnest games I have been to and was all around just really cool to be a part of. It was also fun to see all the guys so excited after the game because they worked really hard to earn it, so seeing them celebrate such a big win was awesome,” said Diamond Sweetheart, Rylee Bailey.
The fans have continued to support their Bobcats for the entirety of the 2022 season. There has been great spectator turn out for the games, especially the games against well known Texas schools such as Baylor, UT and UTSA.
“I have loved coming to the games this year. My friends and I like to come out and support by cheering the boys on and messing with the other team. We always yell out random, dumb things and it is just really fun because other people will start to join and make the comments funnier. Nothing beats when the crowd has good energy, and everyone is yelling and cheering for the team. This has definitely been the funnest season to experience and I cannot wait until next season,” said fan, Tyler Wilson.
All the attention on the baseball team this year has been great for the program. There has been more people coming out to watch the games, even the attendance record for Bobcat Ballpark was broken when Texas State played the Longhorns. There was a lot of buzz about that game because, at the time, UT was the number one college baseball team. The stadium has continued to fill out and fans have been able to achieve the real baseball experience.
The Texas State Bobcats have had a record breaking and historical 2022 season. They have put in a lot of work, both mentally and physically, to achieve their successes this season. The team still has four more series to play, for a total of 10 games, left of the season. They will play ULM, Louisiana, Houston Baptist and Georgia State to finish off 2022.
