Despite a less-than-ideal postponement of the game, Texas State softball (43-13, 18-6 Sun Belt Conference) defeated Marshall University (25-27, 10-14 Sun Belt Conference) by a final score of 8-2 Friday afternoon at Bobcat Softball Stadium in the quarterfinal round of the Sun Belt tournament.

“I don’t think we gave [Marshall] a chance to even respond to much,” Texas State Head Coach Ricci Woodard said. “The way we came out on fire is exactly what I wanted to see.”

Texas State jumped out to the early lead, putting up a four spot in the first and never looking back. The Bobcats went on to score two in the fourth and two more in the sixth.

At the plate, graduate student Sara Vanderford led the charge for the Bobcat offense. Vanderford went 3-4 with four RBIs on the day, accounting for half of Texas State’s run-scoring.

“As of late, I’ve just been looking for pitches I can drive,” Vanderford said. “If I can keep it that simple, I’m going to be hard to beat.”

In the circle, senior pitcher Jessica Mullins and graduate student Tori McCann combined to hold the Thundering Herd to only two runs on the afternoon.

Mullins picked up her 28th win on the season, throwing 4.1 shutout innings and only surrendering one hit. The early offensive outburst allowed Woodard to pull Mullins early and insert McCann into the game.

McCann closed out the last 2.2 innings, surrendering only one earned run and three hits.