CLEARWATER, Fla. – Another sweep Saturday afternoon improved Texas State to 4-0 at the USF-Under Armour Invitational and 16-5 overall this season. A 9-1 victory over Penn to start the morning backed by a 5-3 win over Detroit in the afternoon makes that five straight victories for the Texas State softball team.
 
Game One – Penn
Five straight Bobcats reached base to start the game against the Quakers. Kelli Baker led off the game by getting hit by a pitch. She quickly moved to second on a passed ball and Liscano then filled her void at first by reaching on an error. A single down the left field line by Ariel Ortiz scored Baker for the first run of the game.
 
A double by Kendall Wiley on the next at bat scored Liscano and moved Ortiz over to third. The 'Cats went on to score two more runs thanks to three walks by the Penn pitching staff.
 
Three more hits in the second inning led to three more runs and a 7-0 lead for Texas State. Liscano led the inning off with a walk and made her way to third on a wild pitch. She scored the fifth Bobcat run of the day after Taylor Webb hit a single to center field. A double to left center by Sara Rupp scored Webb and Bianca Prado tallied the other Bobcat hit of the inning.
 
A single to right by Ortiz and a double to left center by Wiley were the two hits that helped lead to two more runs in the third inning by Texas State.
 
Penn got one run back in the fourth, but a scoreless fifth for the Quakers resulted in the run-rule victory for Texas State.
 
Randi Rupp earned her 11^th victory of the season after putting in three innings of work with five strikeouts. Rupp allowed just two hits. Quincy Charleston came in relief for Rupp in the fourth inning and struck out three while not allowing a walk.
 
Ortiz and Wiley each tallied two hits in the game for Texas State and Liscano drew a team-high two walks. Penn, in all, gave up seven walks to the Texas State line-up.
 
Game Two – Detroit
Two runs in the bottom of the first inning quickly gave Texas State a 2-0 lead over the Titans. A walk drawn by Baker led off the game and she ended up scoring on a throwing error by the Titan catcher. Wiley and Kimberlin Naivar each registered a hit in the inning for Texas State.
 
Detroit and Texas State had a scoreless second before each added one in the third. The Titans combined three hits to score one run and cut the Bobcat lead in half.
 
Texas State answered in its half of the third. A walk by Webb resulted in a run two batters later for Texas State as Jaelyn Young scored her on a sacrifice fly.
 
The Bobcats scored one more in the fourth before giving up one in the fifth and sixth to Detroit. In the bottom of the sixth, Prado scored on a wild pitch after making her way to the bases paths with a walk.
 
Three up, three down by Rupp in the top of the seventh inning gave the sophomore pitcher her second save of the season and the 'Cats 16^th win of the year.
 
Paige Williams earned her fifth victory of the year to improve to 5-1 overall with 4.0 innings pitched against the Titans. Williams struck out one and allowed two earned runs. Rupp came in relief in the fifth inning for Williams and allowed just one unearned run while striking out five.
 
Braegan Hamilton finished the game a perfect 3-for-3 from the plate with a run scored. Liscano, Wiley, Naivar, and Prado all recorded hits against the Titans.
 
The Texas State pitchers this weekend have struck out 30 batters while walking just eight. Rupp owns a 23-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio this weekend in 14.0 innings pitched. Wiley leads the team this weekend with five hits and Hamilton owns four for Texas State.
 
Texas State will take to the diamond one more time this weekend on Sunday morning against IPFW. First pitch against the Mastodons is scheduled for 8 a.m. CT. Live stats will be available at www.txstatebobcats.com. Fans can also follow the game on Twitter at @TxStateSoftball.