What’s sweeter than one win on Valentine’s Day? Two wins on Valentine’s Day. Backed by more strong pitching and timely offense, Texas State softball won both games of its doubleheader Friday afternoon at Bobcat Softball Stadium.
“I like the way we went about the day,” Texas State head coach Ricci Woodard said. “We tried to play pitch to pitch [and] everybody tried to contribute as much as they could. It was a team effort all the way around today.”
Game One – Stephen F Austin
A strong outing from Emma Strood in the circle, along with 11 Bobcat hits and five errors from Stephen F. Austin, led Texas State to an 11-2 run-rule victory.
The Bobcats’ theme of leaving runners on base persisted through the first two innings of Friday’s contest with the Lumberjacks, as they stranded three. Kaylee Paul got the scoring started for SFA in the third inning when she tripled into right center. A sac fly later brought Paul home to give SFA the 2-0 lead.
It didn’t take long for Texas State to answer SFA’s scoring. Seven Bobcats crossed the plate in the home half of the third. RBI base hits from Keely Williams and Erin Peterson bookended the inning for the Bobcats. Woodard had a plan for her offense and stuck to it as the Bobcats bunted and singled the Lumberjacks to death in the third.
Four more Bobcats came around the score in the fourth, an inning highlighted by a triple from Ciara Trahan. From there, Presley Glende took over in the circle for the final three outs of the game, putting the finishing touches on the Bobcats’ run-rule victory.
In the circle, Strood worked four strong innings, only surrendering two runs on three hits while punching out seven batters. Strood improved to 2-0 on the young season and looks to be making her case as the Bobcats clear number two starter.
Game 2 – St. Thomas
Strong pitching was the theme for both sides during the nightcap. For Texas State, Maddy Azua turned in another quality outing, working 4 2/3 innings, surrendering two earned runs on three hits and sitting down eight via the strikeout. On St. Thomas’ side, Ava Kleinfeldt turned in a solid start as well, giving up two earned runs over four innings.
Scoring was non-existent in the first three frames as the game entered the fourth inning at a 0-0 stalemate. St. Thomas was first through the wall when catcher Kameron Monson lifted a ball up and out of the park for a two-run home run to give the Tommies a 2-0 lead. The Bobcats managed to scratch a run back in the bottom half of the frame thanks in part to an RBI groundout from Karmyn Bass.
Analisa Soliz held St. Thomas to a much-needed zero in the sixth inning, keeping the game at 2-1 heading into the bottom half. In the home half, Peterson tied the game with an RBI single and stole second, which caused an error that allowed Sydney Harvey to score and give the Bobcats their first lead of the game at 3-2. Williams then added a much-needed insurance run with an RBI single, scoring Peterson.
With two outs in the seventh, Tommies third baseman Cassidy Carby homered to straight away centerfield off of Soliz to bring St. Thomas within one with its three-hole batter due up. Woodard wasted no time switching back to her ace as Azua re-entered the game. Azua struck out the only batter she saw to finish off the night with a win.
With the two wins, the Bobcats moved to 3-0 in the tournament and will look to remain unbeaten when they take on Fordham and New Mexico on Saturday.
To this point, Fordham is 2-5 and coming off of a win over New Mexico 4-2, while New Mexico sits at 4-4-1 and is coming off of an 8-3 win over St. Thomas.
Texas State will open day three of the Bobcat tournament against Fordham. The first pitch against the Rams is set for Saturday at 2:30. Immediately following will be game two against New Mexico.
