SAN MARCOS, Texas — The train that is the Texas State softball program continued rolling down the tracks Thursday night as the Bobcats extended its winning streak to 16 with a doubleheader sweep of Coastal Carolina, 6-5 and 5-1.
"I thought we did a good job of doing what we needed to to get out of here with two wins today," said Texas State softball head coach
Ricci Woodard. "Pitching wasn't going real well for us early tonight, but I think we just hung in there and struggled through finding ways to win."
The fun for Texas State (23-3, 7-0) started well behind the sun fell beneath the third-base dugout bleachers as
ArieAnn Bell crushed a two-strike pitch over the left-field fence for a three-run home run in the bottom of the second in game one. Coastal Carolina (8-15) responded with a single run the following inning.
The Bobcats, though, pushed three more across the plate in the bottom of the third when reigning Sun Belt Player of the Week
Tara Oltmann sent a 2-2 pitch over the left-field fence, too, for a three-run home run to make it 6-1 Bobcats. The Chanticleers, however, answered with a solo home run in its half of the fourth.
The 6-2 stalemate stayed in effect until the top of the sixth when Coastal Carolina plated three runs on three hits and left the game-tying run on second base after chasing Bobcat starting pitcher
Jessica Mullins (11-2). But
Meagan King entered the pitching circle and pitched a perfect 1.2 innings of relief to shut the door and earn her second save of the season.
Game two started with less of power outburst, but still the same result for the home run as
Kylie George scored from third on a two-out wild pitch after drawing a one-out walk, then stealing third after moving to second on
Sara Vanderford's walk. The Bobcats' speed on the base paths occurred, again, in the bottom of the second as
Cat Crenek singled through the left side to start the inning, stole second and third before scoring on a two-out wild pitch.
Crenek scratched across another run for the Bobcats in the bottom of the fourth when she hit a 1-2 pitch that disappeared into the pitch-black Thursday-night skyline and re-appeared well beyond the 225-foot center-field fence for a solo home run.
The freshman duo of
Sydney Belvin and
Piper Randolph continued wreaking havoc on the base paths as Belvin scored from first on a fielding error in right field as a result of a Randolph, who ended up at third, single. Randolph scored during the next at bat as
Hannah Earls singled to the pitch.
Coastal Carolina got into the run column early in the sixth inning with a double by Makiya Thomas, who scored Taylor Sweigart from first after leading off the inning with a bunt single.
The two teams will wrap up the three-game series on Friday, April 2 at 12 p.m.
