One day after being honored during pregame, graduate student pitcher Tori McCann stole the show on senior day, throwing a complete game, two-hit shutout as she helped lead Texas State softball (42-13, 18-6 Sun Belt Conference) to a 5-0 victory and a sweep of Marshall University (24-27, 10-14 Sun Belt Conference) Saturday afternoon at Bobcat Softball Stadium.
“To come out and throw this game today, at this point in the season, I couldn’t be more proud of [Tori],” Texas State Head Coach Ricci Woodard said. “[Tori’s performance] gave me goosebumps.”
The Thundering Herd had zero answers for McCann as she kept their bats quiet all afternoon. Marshall picked up their first hit of the game in the first inning. After that, the Herd wouldn’t pick up another off of McCann until the sixth.
“I was feeling good in the circle; I knew my team had my back,” McCann said. “I knew [Marshall] was going to swing the bat, so I just let my defense work.”
Run scoring was scarce in terms of innings played. The Bobcats only scored in two of the seven innings of play, putting up two in the third inning and three in the sixth inning, but with McCann’s performance, that is all that was needed.
Senior infielder J.J. Smith had the only multi-hit performance for Texas State, going 2-3 on the afternoon, while sophomore Katarina Zarate had the only multi-RBI performance, driving in two of the five runs.
“We saw [Marshall’s] first pitcher [of the game] for the third time this weekend, so I knew what her plan was,” Smith said. “I knew just to attack pitches, stay above the ball and trust my swing.”
With the regular season now finished, the Bobcats will turn their attention to the Sun Belt Conference tournament. The Bobcats will be hosting the tournament and coming into it as the No. 2 seed in the conference.
Texas State is set to begin play in the SBC tournament on Thursday, May 9, at 7:00 p.m. at Bobcat Softball Stadium, where it will face the winner of No. 7 Georgia Southern (30-20, 12-12 Sun Belt Conference) versus No. 10 Marshall.
