TROY, Ala. — On the heels of an absolutely dominate performance against UTA, the Texas State softball coaching staff made the brilliant decision to stay with the hot arm in Meagan King against the top-seed Louisiana Friday morning.

However, a two-out throwing error in the top of the sixth inning gave the Ragin' Cajuns (43-10) a slimmer of light, which ultimately propelled Louisiana to a 4-3 victory in the semifinals of the 2021 Sun Belt Conference Championship winner's bracket semifinals despite a late-inning rally from the Bobcats. 

"I thought we played our tail ends off and that's really all you can ask at this point," said Texas State softball head coach Ricci Woodard. "There were a couple costly errors, but, other than that, I thought Meagan threw a really great game and I thought we did a much better job at the plate today. 

"I don't really have any complaints. It's exactly what we needed to do to try to come out and win a ballgame today. It just didn't go our way."

Less than 20 hours after throwing a 75-pitch complete game shutout against UTA, King (11-4) returned to the pitching circle for Texas State (38-11) and picked up right where we left off against the Mavericks. 

Ciara Bryan beat a throw from Bobcat shortstop Tara Oltmann for a game-opening infield single, but Caitlyn Rogers threw Bryan out attempting to steal second base on the next pitch. Rogers' throw made Texas State the first Ragin' Cajuns opponent to throw out Bryan multiple times during the 2021 season after Cat Crenek did so on April 17, 2021 in Lafayette. 

From there, King retired the next eight consecutive Louisiana batters, before Bryan snapped the streak with a single to start the top of the fourth. After a lineout on the next pitch, Bryan was called for leaving first base early then a three-pitch sequence to Jade Gortarez capped a 31-pitch first four innings for King. 

Louisiana first attempted to break the 0-0 tie with one out in the top of the fifth inning, but freshman centerfield Piper Randolph threw out Justice Milz at the plate for the second out. 

But three pitches later, Kendall Talley snapped Texas State's 18.2 consecutive scoreless innings pitched at this year's conference tournament when she singled home Alissa Dalton.
The hit marked the first run against the Texas State pitching staff in its last 21 innings thrown dating back to the top of the fourth inning against UTA in the Bobcats' regular-season finale on Saturday, May 8. 

Texas State responded in the bottom half of the inning when senior Hailey MacKay singled through the right side of the diamond to bring home both Kylie George and Sara Vanderford.

Bryan started the top of the sixth inning by singling a 2-2 pitch to left field, then worked her way to third on back-to-back outs. Texas State appeared to get out of the inning with the lead, but a throwing error allowed Bryan to score. The throw was followed by a run-scoring hit from Julie Rawls to give Louisiana a 3-2 lead, before the inning was over. 

Louisiana extended its lead to 4-2 in the top of the seventh when Bailey Curry reached first on a wild pitch strike three, then pinch-runner Jenna Kean scored from first on a double off the bat of Sophie Piskos. 

Oltmann cut the deficit to one run — with Vanderford coming to the plate — with a two-out solo home run in the bottom of the seventh. But Vanderford went down swinging on four pitches to end the game. 

Texas State will return to action on Saturday, May 15 when it plays in the loser's bracket finals against an opponent to be determined following the remainder of Friday's action.