SAN MARCOS, TX — Jessica Mullins was in true mid-season form as the Texas State sophomore right-hander hurled her fourth complete game shutout on the season as the Bobcats capped a three-game sweep of Georgia State with a 3-0 victory Saturday morning.
The performance was the first complete game shutout for Mullins (16-11) since Sunday, March 20, 2022, when she threw seven scoreless innings at South Alabama.
In arguably one of her best pitching performances on the season, Mullins, who has surrendered just four runs — three earned — in 32.2 career innings against Georgia State, allowed one runner to reach third — Emily Brown walked to begin the game, then advanced to second and third on back-to-back groundouts — and just one to reach second — Carolyn Deady, who, after blooping a 1-2 pitch into shallow right field for a single, moved to second on an infield single off the bat of Jackie Gonzalez that hugged the first-base line in the top of the second.
The only Georgia State (16-23, 6-9) to reach base over the next five innings was Chloe Middlebrooks, who drew a one-out walk in the top of the third. Following that at bat, Mullins went on to retire the next 14 consecutive Panther student-athletes at the plate.
"I feel my change-up was really working for me today more than anything," Mullins said. "I was trying to get ahead in the count and just tried to induce popups or easy groundballs for my team and my change-up added a lot to that today."
The Texas State (24-17, 10-8) offense gave Mullins an early lead to work with following a one-out, two-run double from
Anna Jones that scored
Hannah Earls and
Ciara Trahan just four batters into the bottom of the first.
Sara Vanderford added a late insurance run with her 21st career home run with one out in the bottom of the sixth.
"We just haven't been getting those hard key hits in games, so to be able to finally hit a ball to the wall and a ball out of the yard, it's what we need to do," said Texas State softball head coach
Ricci Woodard. "We have slappers who can run, we just need to be able to produce when they get on."
With her two stolen bases on the morning, Earls, just a sophomore, tied Ashley Wilson (2002-05) for eighth on the program's career stolen base list, just one shy of tying Brooke Baker (2010-13) for seventh.
And with a pair of wins on the weekend, Mullins now has 36 career victories as a member of the Texas State softball program, just four back of tying Anne Marie Taylor (2010-13) for eighth on the program's career win list. She also became just the seventh student-athlete in program history to surpass 350 career strikeouts when she struck out Deady looking to end the top of the fourth.
Texas State will now look to extend its current four-game winning streak to a season-long five games when the Bobcats play host to UTSA on Tuesday, April 19 at 6 p.m. CT.
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