Texas State Softball (15-6) will play its first in-conference series of the season when the Appalachian State Mountaineers (9-15) take a trip to San Marcos this weekend to conduct a three-game slate at Bobcat Softball Stadium.
The Bobcats are coming off a dominating series sweep against the Missouri State Bears, where both the offense and pitching had a much-needed bounce-back performance after a difficult trip to College Station the previous weekend.
The Mountaineers, meanwhile, are coming into San Marcos with a 4-3 loss to Austin Peay in the Cathi Maynard Invitational, which they finished with two victories out of five games.
Pitching might be the ultimate strength for Texas State in this series, as Appalachian State’s offense possesses a bottom-four-ranked offense in the conference.
The Mountaineers’ offense contains three players with an OPS above .950. They are led by shortstop Grace Barrett, who leads the team in hits (26), runs batted in (16) and doubles (8).
The Bobcats currently have an overall ERA of 2.18, headlined by the one-two punch combo of Madison Azua and Emma Strood, both having thrown a combined overall 135 strikeouts entering the series.
The Mountaineers’ pitching staff is led by Sophie Moshos and Sejal Neas. While they both possess middle-of-the-pack ERA’s, Neas has an opponent batting average of .234 (seventh overall in the Sun Belt) and Moshos has 57 strikeouts (sixth in the Sun Belt).
Offensively, Texas State looks to Aiyana Coleman to continue her dominating performance. Coleman has been the best batter in the offense, leading the Bobcats in multiple offensive categories that even rank highly among the Sun Belt Conference.
She currently leads the team in OPS (1.404), hits (21), doubles (5), runs batted in (17) and home runs (6).
The Bobcats and the Mountaineers will begin their first game of the weekend series at 6 p.m. on Friday. The series will be available to stream on ESPN+.
