SAN MARCOS, Texas — It's the time of the season when every student-athlete wants to push their limits and achieve their dreams. It's postseason time and Texas State will be taking part in its fourth NCAA Regional time in its last five completed seasons under head coach Ricci Woodard. 

Having been assigned to the Austin Regional in 2021, Texas State (38-12, 17-6) will begin its weekend action against No. 10 Oregon (37-15, 14-10) on Friday, May 21 at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN3. Texas (39-11, 12-6) and St. Francis (40-8, 22-2) round out the regional. 

Kevin Brown and Amanda Scarborough will call the weekend's action with Jalyn Johnson serving as the reporter throughout the regional. 

WHO TO WATCH: Texas State pitching staff 

Over Texas State's last 10 games, which include seven wins, the Bobcat pitching staff has been outstanding. Including last week's four Sun Belt Conference games, TXST enters this weekend with a 1.36 ERA as a team over its last 10 games with freshman Jessica Mullins sporting a 0.72 ERA and senior Meagan King brings a 0.97 mark to the table. The duo has combined to allow just seven earned runs in 58.0 innings pitched. They've also issued only 12 walks to 44 strikeouts during that same timeframe. Mullins has limited opponents to a .180 batting average, while King has a .205 opponent batting average with only two (two doubles) of her 23 hits allowed going for extra-base hits. 

INSIDE THE SERIES: Texas, Oregon, St. Francis (Pa.)

• Texas State's lone win over Oregon came on Feb. 2, 2001 — current head coach Ricci Woodard's first career game — when the Ducks traveled to San Marcos, Texas. The Bobcats have never beaten Oregon in a neutral-site game (0-3) with the last matchup between the two teams coming in Las Vegas on Feb. 12, 2005. 
• A potential matchup between Texas State and St. Francis (Pa.) would be the first all-time meeting between the two softball programs. 
• A potential game between Texas State and Texas would be the third contest between the two softball teams during the 2021 season with the Longhorns escaping both games with one-run victories. The last victory for the Bobcats over the Longhorns in Austin came on March 1, 2017 when TXST won 2-1. In NCAA Regional action, Texas State is 1-4 all-time against Texas with the lone victory coming on May 19, 2017 when then-second seeded TXST won, 2-1, in 12 innings over then-third seeded Texas.

THE HOME RUN PLAY

The only other thing the Texas State offense has done as successful throughout the 2021 season as stealing bases has been hitting home runs. The Bobcats enter the Austin Regional having hit 46 home runs, which is one shy of tying the 2017 team for the third-most home runs in a single season in program history. The 2003 and 2015 team share the top mark with 59 home runs. Additionally, TXST is the only team in the Sun Belt Conference with multiple student-athletes ranking in the top five of the league's home run leaderboard. Sara Vanderford sits atop with 12, while ArieAnn Bell is tied for second with 11 and Tara Oltmann is two back in fifth place with 10. Only Coastal Carolina's Mackenzie Beyer (11) and South Alabama's Kamdyn Kvistard (10) have hit double-digit home runs among qualified Sun Belt Conference softball student-athletes.

ERA QUEENS

While Vanderford, Bell and Oltmann are doing damage at the plate, the Texas State duo of Jessica Mullins and Meagan King have been dominating in the pitching circle, too. Following her back-to-back complete game performances during last week's Sun Belt Conference Meagan King surpassed the qualified-pitcher plateau. With that, the Bobcats' senior right-hander's 1.93 ERA now sits third on the conference's ERA leaderboard right behind Mullins' 1.59, which is only 0.09 behind Troy's Leanna Johnson for the top spot. With their ERAs, Mullins and King make Texas State the only team in the league with multiple pitchers ranking in the top three in ERA. The duo of Mullins and King in the pitching circle has also propelled the Bobcats to the top spot on the league's team ERA list with a 2.02 mark.