Pierre alum, Peyton Zabel would earn his second win on the mound on Wednesday night in the 12-6 win over Houston Christian University to improve the Bobcats to 9-8.
Zabel came in relief of starter Calen Graham after Graham went 3.1 innings. In his relief stint, Zabel went 3.2 innings allowing one earned run on one hit, one walk and striking out four on 52 pitches thrown. He came out of the bullpen and on his first pitch of the game induced a groundball 5-3 double play to end the inning. Texas State had a 4-2 lead when Zabel entered the game and the lead increased to 8-3 after he left in the seventh. Texas State would hit a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth to get the final separation as Aaron Lugo would finish with six RBI going 3-4, a triple shy away from the cycle.
It was Zabel’s fifth appearance of the season and third out of the bullpen. The redshirt senior is 2-1 overall allowing eight earned runs on 11 hits through 12 innings pitched this year. Texas State opens Sun Belt Conference play at home this weekend against Appalachian State Friday through Sunday.
