SAN MARCOS, Texas — It's the stuff of fairytales, really. A year ago, six Texas State softball student-athletes were left wondering if that was it after the 2020 NCAA Division I Softball season was canceled before it even got started. 

Fast-forward to May 8, 2021 and those six student-athletes were able to write one of the final chapters of their collegiate softball careers and it was punctuated with a 4-2 victory over in-state foe UTA on Saturday afternoon. 

The win not only caps the three-game sweep of the Mavericks, but it also set a program record for most home wins (25) in a single season. The victory also gives the 2021 squad an outright place in the program's record book as Saturday was the team's 36th win on the season, breaking a three-way and moving this season's edition of the Bobcats into the 10th spot on the single-season wins list. 

"I think it was a really good weekend to get a sweep," said Texas State softball head coach Ricci Woodard. "I don't think it was our best (soft)ball necessarily, but I think it was a good weekend for us to just battle through and find ways to win. 

"At the end of the day, if you're hitting the ball hard and out of the yard at the time of the year, that can only help."

Saturday was just another example of that for the Bobcats, but it wasn't at the end of the day when Texas State (36-10, 17-6) was hitting the softball out of the yard, though.

Looking to respond to UTA's first-inning run, Hailey MacKay, who one of the six seniors left pondering about her college softball future 14 months ago, tied the game when she sent a 2-1 pitch well beyond the 225-foot marker in centerfield in the bottom of the second. After ArieAnn Bell nearly followed her senior teammate with her own solo home run, Cat Crenek did just that when she capped a seven-pitch plate appearance with a solo home run to left-centerfield to push the Bobcats ahead of UTA. 

UTA (16-32, 9-14) did, however, manage to re-tie the game two innings later when a two-out basehit found its way into the right-centerfield corner to plate a Maverick run. 

But, Sara Vanderford extender her Sun Belt Conference-leading home run total when she sent the first pitch of her fourth-inning plate appearance nearly onto the train tracks beyond the left-field fence to push the Bobcats back ahead. 

Following MacKay and Bell's back-to-back walks, Crenek singled through the right side to score Piper Randolph, who pinch ran for MacKay, from second to give Texas State a two-run advantage. 

Now with a two-run lead, Jessica Mullins, who entered the game with one out in the top of the second to relieve senior starter Dalilah Barrera, went on to retire the next three UTA batters and allowed just three singles over the game's final three innings to earn her 19th victory of the season.
 
Texas State will now await its Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament seed later this weekend, before tournament play begins early next week.