Press Release
SAN MARCOS, Texas — On the final day of the Lonestar State Invitational, the Texas State softball team continued its winning ways as the Bobcats knocked off Lamar, 8-1, on Sunday afternoon.
“I wanted to get out of the weekend with five wins, but I told myself if we got out of here 4-1, then I was going to be really happy,” said Texas State softball head coach Ricci Woodard. “I thought our players did a good job of being tuned in the entire weekend.
“We started this week on Monday and it’s been a long week, so to be able to come out today and do what we did, I thought was a fantastic job on their part.”
After Lamar (2-13) hit a two-out, first-inning solo home run off Bobcat starting pitcher Jessica Mullins, Texas State (6-2) put up a seven-run bottom of the third inning to take a lead it did not relinquish.
Cat Crenek started the offensive outburst in the inning when she hit a one-out, two-run triple to plate ArieAnn Bell and Kylie George. Tara Oltmann followed with a single through the left side to score Crenek.
Four batters later, Sara Vanderford planted a 1-1 pitch with the bases loaded down the right-field line to score Baylee Lemons, Hailey MacKay and Oltmann to balloon the Bobcat lead to 6-1. Vanderford scored on Bell’s single to right-centerfield during the next at bat.
Mullins was replaced in the circle by Meagan King (2-0) after two batters in the top of the fourth. King retired all five batters she faced, before Brooke Blackwell made her Bobcat debut with two outs in the fifth inning.
Blackwell entered the game with an 8-1 lead after MacKay doubled home George in the bottom of the fourth. She went on the retire the next four straight batters in the game, before Lamar hit into a game-ending double play in the top of the seventh.
Texas State will return to action on Wednesday, March 3 when the Bobcats travel to Lubbock, Texas to play two games against Texas Tech. The Wednesday doubleheader is a re-scheduled series from the season-opening postponement.
