Bobcats and Mavericks face off for game one of series on March 23 at 6:30 p.m.

March 22, 2007

SAN MARCOS--Texas State goes on the road to face Southland Conference opponent Texas-Arlington for a three-game weekend series. The Bobcats are currently 16-8 overall and 3-0 in the conference. Texas-Arlington is 9-15 overall with a 0-3 record in the SLC.

The Bobcats are coming off of a tough loss against Texas. Texas State led early on but couldn't hold and fell 5-3 to the Longhorns for a second time this season.

In previous SLC play, Texas State took the three-game series with Nicholls State. The Bobcats won 8-1 on March 16th, 8-2 on March 17th and 8-1 on March 18th.

Game one of the series takes place on Friday, March 23rd at Clay Gould Ballpark. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. The two will play again on March 24th at 2:00 p.m. and March 25th at 1:00 p.m. Texas State leads the overall series with Texas-Arlington, 35-30.

Opponent Preview Texas-Arlington is coming off of their fifth straight loss. The Mavericks fell 10-6 to TCU on March 20th. In the opening weekend of conference play, UTA was swept by Lamar, 4-1, 4-1 and 5-0 on March 16th.

The Mavericks are led by senior shortstop Kyle Rudy. Rudy has a batting average of .388 scoring 15 runs off of 31 hits. In 23 games, he has six doubles, one home run and ten RBIs for a .500 slugging percentage. Leading Texas-Arlington on the mound is junior Dillon Gee. Gee posts a 4.37 ERA going 2-4 so far this season. In 45.1 innings pitched, Gee has given up 49 hits, 22 earned runs and struck out 33.

Texas-Arlington is coached by sixth year head coach Jeff Curtis. In five seasons, Curtis has led the Mavericks to a 153-148 record. He is assisted by Darin Thomas, Jay Sirianni and Mark Flatten.

The Last Time The two met on four separate occasions last season. The Bobcats went 2-1 with the Mavericks in regular season play last year. In May, Texas-Arlington took game one of the three-game series, 7-5. Texas State came back and won games two and three, 6-5 and 6-0.

Texas State and UTA played each other in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament on May 24th. The Bobcats posted a 9-3 win over the Mavericks to advance in the tournament. Luke Cannon hit his record-tying 17th home run in the game, while the team produced 11 hits and nine RBIs.