#22 Texas State softball (33-12, 10-5 Sun Belt Conference) defeated #21 University of Louisiana at Lafayette (29-14, 14-1 Sun Belt Conference) 5-1 Sunday afternoon at Bobcat Softball Stadium.
This win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Bobcats and prevented the series sweep to the Ragin’ Cajuns. The win also marked Texas State’s first victory against Louisiana-Lafayette since 2022.
The win was powered by senior day stardom from senior pitcher Jessica Mullins, who pitched a complete game.
“I feel like we all just reminded each other how good we were,” Mullins said. “Just trust the process, play the game one pitch at a time, and you know the better team is going to show up, and we just showed up.”
Mullins allowed four hits, two walks and five strikeouts in the victory, her 23rd of the season.
The majority of the action came in the bottom of the second inning. With the bases loaded, sophomore infielder Katarina Zarate made a big splash with a two-RBI double, which was followed by a bases-clearing two-RBI double from sophomore catcher Megan Kelnar.
Zarate was not done at the plate as she added the only other Texas State run in the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run onto the train tracks behind left field.
“This kind of reminds us of who we are and what we have to do … finish this thing,” Texas State Head Coach Ricci Woodard said.
Louisiana-Lafayette could not get Mullins to fold on the mound, and the Ragin’ Cajuns stranded seven runners on the basepaths throughout the game.
“I thought we played really well at Texas and got beat by a good ball club,” Woodard said. “[Louisiana Lafayette is] another good ball club. But those are games we [got to] pull out just like we did today.”
The Bobcats have a long, seven-game road stretch coming up. The first of those seven games is against I-35 rival the University of Texas at San Antonio (12-33, 3-15 Conference USA).
Texas State won the first matchup between the two teams 2-1 on February 8 and will attempt to sweep the Roadrunners on Tuesday.
The first pitch between Texas State and UTSA is scheduled to be thrown at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April. 17, at Roadrunner Field in San Antonio. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
