SAN ANTONIO, TX — The Texas State softball pitching trio of Presley Glende, Karsen Pierce and Jessica Mullins kept the UTSA offense to minimal productivity as the Bobcats knocked off the Roadrunners, 5-3, Wednesday night. 

"I think any time you can get 10 hits in a ball game, especially a mid-week game, that's a plus," said Texas State softball head coach Ricci Woodard. "We just didn't capitalize on some situations like we needed to — once again — so we need to keep getting key hits with runners in scoring position. But otherwise, offensively, I thought we did a pretty good job tonight."

Glende, who earned her second career collegiate start, did not allow a hit through her 2.1 innings of work. Pierce (4-2) picked up right where the freshman right-handed left off as the Southern Miss transfer did not allow the Roadrunners into the hit column until the bottom of the fifth, when she gave way to Mullins (S, 2) to close the door. 

Of the game's remaining nine outs, Mullins retired eight via strikeout with the lone exception being a pop up to Hannah Earls at shortstop to start the seventh. And with her second strikeout in the bottom of the fifth, Mullins passed Jessica Chase (1999-02) for eighth on the program's career strikeout list. 

Texas State (18-13) produced two first-inning runs for Glende when Anna Jones singled home Kylie George, who recorded the game's first hit on the game's sixth pitch, from second after the speedster stole second. Jones, who took second on a late throw to the plate on an attempt to get George, scored on the following at bat when Caitlyn Rogers sent a 3-2 pitch into left field for a single. 

The two-run Bobcat lead stood until the bottom of the third when UTSA (9-18) scored a single run on a bases-loaded wild pitch, then two more on a two-out fielding error. 

Texas State's all-conference infielder Sara Vanderford made sure the Roadrunner lead was short lived when the junior barreled a 1-0 pitch down the left-field line for a double that plated Piper Randolph and Hannah Earls to give the Bobcats a 4-3 advantage. 

UTSA didn't go quietly, however, as the Roadrunners loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth, before Mullins' third strikeout of the inning ended the frame. The home team came back around an inning later and managed to move a baserunner over to second, but another Mullins strikeout concluded the inning. 

Samara Lagway provided a seventh-inning insurance run for Texas State when she also doubled to left field to score Jones with two outs in the top of the seventh and extend the Bobcats' lead to 5-3. 

Mullins, who worked three scoreless innings of relief with eight strikeouts, returned to the circle in the bottom half of the seventh and set down UTSA in order. 

Texas State will now turn its attention back to Sun Belt action as the Bobcats play host to Louisiana (21-8, 7-2) for a three-game series beginning on Friday, April 1 at 6:00 p.m. CT. 

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