Texas State Softball Steals One From McNeese

By Reily Chestnut
Sports Reporter

Texas State certainly saved the best for last in this 5-4 win over the McNeese Cowgirls.

“How big of a comeback was it,” you might ask. Well, going into the bottom of the 7th inning the Bobcats were three outs away from losing to McNeese. In fact, the ‘cats were going into the final frame having only five hits and no runs as Texas State star Randi Rupp had an off day in her 28th start of the year, giving up four runs in only three innings in the circle before getting relieved by Quincy Charleston. Meanwhile, the Cowgirls had only one inning where they scored, but they had a four-run fourth inning that gave them a lead all the way until. But what a comeback it was as the  cats started the rally with an RBI triple by freshman Bailee Carter to bring home Haleigh Davis and give the Bobcats their first run of the night and nobody out.

Following this came a pitching change that saw McNeese starter Alexsandra Flores’ day end after six innings. She then handed it over to fellow Cowgirl pitcher powerhouse Rachel Smith as she looked to nail down the save and a possible 4-1 victory for McNeese. But alas, two batters later, fellow freshman Christiana McDowell delivered the sac fly to bring Carter home while Kimberlin Naivar had stayed at first, one out. A walk by junior Ariel Ortiz then set up junior Jaelyn Young for a fielder’s choice that brought home Naivar and left herself on first with only one out left for Smith to get. Then came a walk to junior Taylor Webb that set up senior Corrina Liscano for the double down the left field line on an 0-1 pitch that brought home pinch runner Jaclyn Molenaar and Webb to walk-off the come from behind victory for Texas State. Reliever Quincy Charleston picked up her sixth win of the season in three innings out of the ‘pen while pitching shutout softball the rest of the way for Texas State.

With this win the Bobcats now stand tall with a record of thirty-two and ten while going twelve and five against Sun Belt competition this year, while walking off a win in four straight games now.

You can catch softball playing on the road this weekend against Georgia Southern with a doubleheader Saturday at noon and two o’clock and then Sunday morning at eleven trying to keep the magic going.

Featured image by Tafari Robertson.