SAN MARCOS, Texas — In her first start in 26 days, Marisa Cruz laid the foundation for Meagan King's 40th career win and Jessica Mullins third save on the season. The senior centerfield had two hits in her first two plate appearances to spark the Bobcats' 2-1 victory over UTA Friday evening. 

"(Marisa) has been doing a good job in practice and I think Piper (Randolph) is struggling a little bit at the plate, so it's been a switch we've been thinking about making for a little while," said Texas State softball head coach Ricci Woodard. "You can call it good coaching or good timing for Marisa, but I thought she's just been doing a good job, so we're going to play that out and hopefully run with it."

After UTA (16-31, 9-13) strung together two first-inning singles and a leadoff walk to take a 1-0 lead out of the gates, Cruz settled things back down when she singled a 2-1 pitch to shallow left field. Even though, she was stranded at second to end the inning, her hit provided confidence and momentum. 

King (10-3) used that momentum to set down the next seven Mavericks in a row to give her offense an opportunity to break through in the run column. 

That opportunity finally happened in the bottom of the third when Cruz drove in Kylie George, who led off the inning with an infield single and advanced to second on a throwing error, from second to tie the game. Cruz, then, stole second on the first pitch to Tara Oltmann. 

With the senior speedster now in scoring position, Oltmann forced the UTA defense to make a play when she hit the ball on the ground back up the middle, which resulted in the Maverick shortstop to making a spinning, off-balance throw going to towards right field that ended up with the ball sailing past first base allowing Cruz to round third and score to give TXST the lead. 

UTA attempted to answer the following half inning as it moved a baserunner to third with only one out, but a strikeout and pop up to Sara Vanderford ended the threat. Another opportunity arose the following inning when UTA had runners on first and second with two away, but a grounder to Vanderford allowed the sophomore to gather the ball and step on second base for the inning-ending out. 

Mullins (S: 3) entered the game in the top of the sixth and allowed only a two-out single up the middle in the sixth inning, before closing out the seventh on 10 pitches. Mullins' save marked the eighth save by the Texas State pitching staff this season, which ties the program record set by the 2011 team. 

Texas State (35-10, 16-6) will look to close out its regular-season schedule with a sweep of UTA on Saturday, May 8 when the two teams conclude its three-game series at 12 p.m.