SAN MARCOS, Texas - The Texas State softball team capped off the CenturyLink Classic Sunday afternoon with a sweep. The Bobcats shutout Oklahoma State 4-0 and came from behind to defeat Abilene Christian 4-3 in eight innings.
With the two victories, Texas State improves to 5-1 on the season. The Cowgirls finished the tournament 2-3 and the Wildcats went 0-5.
Game 1 - Oklahoma StateOSU's Brandi Needham retired the first two Bobcats of the game easily but then ran into trouble.
Ariel Ortiz laced a single through the left side. Corrina Liscano was then hit by a pitch and
Kendall Wiley drew a walk on four pitches to load the bases. A 2-1 offering was sent back up middle off the bat of
Taylor Webb that plated two runs and give Texas State an early lead.
In the bottom of the second, Bianco Prado singled to right to load the bases with one out. The Cowgirls then brought in Kacy Freeze in relief. With a 3-0 count on Ortiz, Freeze was called for an illegal pitch, giving Ortiz a free pass and bring in a run. Three pitches later Freeze was again called with throwing an illegal pitch that increased the Bobcats' advantage to 4-0.
The biggest threat that OSU was able to must was in the sixth with a two-out double that put two runners in scoring position.
Randi Rupp struck out the next batter to escape the jam and preserve the shut out.
Rupp went six innings, striking out nine and allowing just three hits to earn the victory.
Quincy Charleston pitched the final frame without allowing a hit. At the dish,
Kayleigh Norte, Liscano, Ortiz, Prado and Webb all recorded a hit in the game.
Game 2 - Abilene ChristianTexas State jumped out to a 2-0 lead again in the first when ACU's Allison Turner was called for an illegal pitch that allowed
Kelli Baker to score. Wiley grounded out to second two batters later that scored the second run of the inning.
The Wildcats knotted the game in the next frame when a throwing error allowed two runners to cross the plate. A RBI single back up the middle in the third put the visitors in front 3-2.
Liscano led off the bottom of the seventh by crushing the first pitch she saw over the left center field fence to knot the score and send the game to extras.
With the international tiebreaking rule in effect, Rupp got into some trouble when a fielding error allowed the Wildcats to put two in scoring position with only one out. She escaped when she induced a grounder to Baker, who nailed the runner at the plate, and then got a swinging strikeout to end the frame.
Leading off, Norte laid down a bunt to try and advance the runner to third. Instead of taking the easy out at first, the pitcher instead threw to third but could not beat the speedy
Kimberlin Naivar to put runners on the corners. Baker followed with a soft dribbler back to the circle for an infield single and loaded the bases.
Ortiz then sent a 1-0 offering to right center for a walk-off single two batters later to give the Bobcats their third comeback win of the weekend.
Rupp picked up the win after throwing two innings of relief to improve to 4-1 on the season. Getting the start was
Paige Williams. She tossed six frames with five strikeouts and surrendered three runs on six hits.
Liscano finished the game 3-for-4 including her second home run of the weekend. Also recording a multi-hit game was Baker with a 2-for-4 performance.
Next for Texas State is the Louisiana Tech Spring Tournament in Ruston, Louisiana taking place Feb. 19-21. The Bobcats will open with Houston Baptist at 9:15 a.m. on Friday.
